Her Unexpected Journey
by Boyz
Summary: Ever wondered if Bilbo was left behind, and he couldn't catch up to the Dwarf Company? What if a "normal" girl was going instead? What if her advance technology was able to ease the journey for them all; but could the dwarves ever accept her for being herself? Let's find out :D Thorin/OC Rated T for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

It had been about three weeks since she was dropped into the world of Middle-Earth. She was lucky enough to run into a gingerly hobbit, named Bilbo Baggins. He was kind enough to let her stay at his... hole, until she was able to find her way back home; wherever that may be. Heather was a sweet girl, who knew nothing about hobbits, gardening, and the finer art of making smoke rings with a tobacco pipe. She was, however, quiet crafty in the art of deception, and very knowledgable about first impressions.

She was able to keep up a difficult characterized person, whom suffered from amnesia and lost her way traveling through the plains of The Shire. Mr. Baggins welcomed her into his hole and continually asked her if her memory was returning; of course, it never was. He was even able to get her a job as a bartender and an aid for the local farm. She was able to maintain her amnesia state through her jobs and some of The Shire's get-togethers.

Heather wasn't ever tall, about 5 foot 2 inches. But that was just enough to be a head taller than the whole community.

One Tuesday morning, like routine, she brushed her hair into a tight ponytail, and grabbed a slice of bread and butter, before leaving for the farm.

"I really wish you would eat more before going," sighed the hobbit. "Eating a little more should help in your recovery"

"I can't," she explained, while tying her shoes, "There's no way I'd be able to eat as much as you want me to."

"But that's barely a meal at all! How can someone so tall eat so little, and still have some much life in her body?"

"I don't know, I guess I must have always ate like this." Heather took a huge bite of bread and stood up.

"Well," Mr. Baggins sighed, "will you at least come home early tomorrow for tea-time? I know Kio will allow you that much."

"I'll ask him when I get there." She called as she walked out the circle door. Heather ran down the stone trail, through the small gate, and down the road to the farm. On the way, she almost ran into a strange older man, with a large walking stick, and slightly faded robes, with a matching pointed hat. Heather shouted an apology, and continued on her way. She thought, just maybe, that that man gave her a strange look, but then again, she had given him one too. Only for the sole reason that he was the first person she has seen, a human, besides hobbits in the last 3 weeks.

Wednesday was like any other day, ran off to the farm in the morning, barely eaten anything all day, and then a calming walk back to the hole. It was dusk out when she left the farm, hopefully in time for tea. She never knew that "tea-time" existed outside of England, but a good change of pace should be a lovely time.

As she was making her way up to Mr. Baggins' hole, when she noticed a lot of obnoxious noise coming from one of the holes (she would never get used to having a hole for a home). Heather walked up to Mr. Baggins' door and found a strange marking, glowing green.

She thought nothing of it, yet hesitated to open the door because she heard many of voices, all cheering and having a good time. Was this tea-time?! Maybe this wasn't so bad. Heather thought.

She opened the circle door and walked in. To her surprise, there were multiple hoods hanging on the coat-racks. I knew Mr. Baggins was popular, but this is crazy! Heather shut the door and was hurriedly welcomed by Bilbo himself. He was sweaty and red-faced.

"Thank goodness you've come early!" He grabbed her wrist and brought her near the heart if the commotion. Heather was pushed into the doorway, which led to the dinner table. About a dozen of strange, bearded man were hungrily eating all of Mr. Baggins' food. "Maybe they know you from somewhere!"

Heather didn't know them, but the whole group of strange men stared at her; as if they haven't seen a girl in their life. They widened their eyes, and opened their mouths. "I don't think they know me," Heather muttered to Bilbo.

"Nonsense!" He shouted and forced Heather into the crowd of men. He completely left her to the unblinking eyes of the men, a few of them were muttering and poiting at her; obviously talking about her.

Sighing loudly, Heather stood awkwardly among the small mob of men. "So, what are your names?"

One by one, around the table, a man would stand up and introduce himself. Each would give his name and bow accordingly. It was 12 men with slightly similar names; there was Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bomfur, Dori, Nori, and Ori. And every single one of them, after stating their name, would say, "at your service!"

"And your name?" The one named Balin asked across the table.

"Oh! My name is Heather" she said, feeling almost obligated to say at your service after giving her name. She saw Bilbo running back into the kitchen with a handful of mugs. All of the men began speaking amongst each other while a few were trying to talk to Heather, but the majority of them weren't very good at talking to girls.

The night continued to go on, slowly getting darker; but the party wasn't getting any bit tired. Heather didn't know Mr. Baggins knew how to throw such a good party. Bilbo was running around for the majority of the night, trying to please all of the men in the room; which she eventually found out that they were dwarves, not hobbits. All of them eventually forgot Heather was ever there, so she was able to sneak away and hide in her room to catch her breath.

It wasn't long before Mr. Baggins found her. "Did any of them know you?" He asked, almost hopeful.

"No, but they did seem to enjoy my company, for a while."

"Well then," he sighed "don't worry. I will help you until you get your wits again. But, in the meantime, I am their host; and you are their hostess." He grabbed her again, and led her into the kitchen. "Start making more meat, these guys never stop eating!"

Heather let her hair down, and began making a stew for the dwarves (that was the only thing she really knew how to make in this hole). While the stew was boiling, Heather heard some footsteps coming up the stone steps. She saw Bilbo trying to refill the dwarves' drinks, again, so she ran to the door and opened it quickly, before the guest had enough time to knock.

Another dwarf, but a different dwarf. He seemed very strange, and almost like a ticking time-bomb, with a very short fuse. She quickly made a mental note to not piss him off. However, just like the others, he was astonished to see a female; Heather was used to his look and immediately introduced herself. "Hello, I am Heather." She was unaware that she had given a small bow. "Are you a member of the dwarf party?"

He met her bow, and answered, "Thorin Oakenshield, at your service." Heather was surprised how low he bowed, his beard had touched the ground. "As for the 'dwarf party,' I am their leader." Heather allowed him in, and was immediately scowled by Mr. Baggins, and told her to remain in the kitchen; she couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

After the dwarves had their full of food and drink, which seemed endless, Bilbo demanded Heather to wash the dishes; so the dwarves' "business" could be finished without distraction. Heather didn't blame him, all of the dwarves kept staring at her, with hungry eyes. She noticed that the elderly gentleman, that she almost into the day before, had somehow appeared and joined them in their business. Whatever it was, it involved Mr. Baggins.

Using her hair, she put a single earbud in her ear, and began to play quiet music from her ipod; to stop herself from listening in on their business.

At some point, she heard a loud THUD, and looked over her shoulder. Bilbo had fainted in the hallway, holding a long sheet of paper. Turning off her iPod, Heather hid the 3 feet of wire in her pocket and rushed over to him. The dwarves only gave a worried look at the hobbit, with a hint of shock.

"What happened?" She asked, feeling his forehead.

"He has fainted, my dear." Said the older man.

No shit, she wanted to say; but that wasn't lady-like. Instead she only gave the older man an expression that could be interpretated to read as "no shit," which caused him to smile courtly at her.

"I see that," she kept her voice sweet and concerned; remember, she is very crafty at deception. "But what caused him to faint?"

"Just talking about how Smaug would kill him," the one named Nori said, at least, she thought it was Nori.

"Who's Smaug?" She said, trying to get Mr. Baggins off of the floor.

Before Nori, or maybe Bifur, could explain, Thorin stood up and glared at him, "No one you need to worry yourself." Although he glared at Bifur, or Nori, he spoke definitely to Heather. "Ori, Balin, help lady Heather get Mr. Baggins to his room."

"No, it's okay," she said, before the two dwarves could get up. Thorin, and everyone watched as Heather used The Fireman's lift, to quickly pick up the limb Mr. Baggins (she had learned the trick from her father). Heather couldn't see their astonished faces, as she left the sight of the dwarves, and easily carried Bilbo into his room. She placed him gingerly on his soft bed, and removed the paper from his grasp. Curiosity got the better of her, as she found herself reading it. It was almost like a contract, for a journey; and he would get one-fourteenth of the share of all profit. A business trip?

She brought the paper back to the dwarves, unsure if it was theirs or his. They were all muttering amongst each other, about how they needed a burglar, and not a fainting hobbit. The older man, whom Heather found out his name was Gandalf, was trying to reassure them about his apparent decision for choosing Mr. Baggins. Heather let her curiosity slip again, and waited in the shadows, listening in.

"He will prove himself more than useful, before your journey is over," Gandalf's voice was very distinguishable apart from the dwarves.

"What about the lady?" One of them asked.

"She can manage on her own, while he is gone."

"No, I mean," inquired the same dwarf, that Heather had guessed was Balin, "What about we took the lady with?"

A small murmur of approval was being passed around the table. Where? Heather thought loudly in her head.

"Absolutely not," Thorin's deep voice loomed over the rest, consequently silencing them all. "I will not go out of my way to endanger a female. Besides, Gandalf said we would need a burglar for the journey; how do we know she can steal and sneak?"

"Why not ask her?" Gandalf said to the rest. Heather felt her heart sank into her feet, oh crap. I didn't think I was breathing that hard. "Come out my dear, I know you've been listening in." She stepped from her dark hiding place and met the gaze of all of them; Gandalf was the only one who gave her a reassuring smile, the others were surprised, again. "That answers one question: she can sneak."

"In the shadows," Thorin grumbled, "and in a small house. Anyone could do that."

"Why not give her a test?" Said the one bald one, with a long beard (maybe Dwalin?) "Have her try to sneak and steal something that one of us has?"

"I will not put a woman in danger," Thorin repeated, glaring at Dwalin. "I could not live with myself if she were to get hurt."

"Let's just humor your company and give her this little test," Gandalf said, after taking a quickly sip of drink. "No harm in testing her abilities." Thorin held the old man's gaze for a moment, while Heather felt her heart returning to her chest.

"What would be her treasure item?" Thorin reluctantly asked his large group of dwarves.

"How about," Gandalf panted at Thorin's thigh, "your smoke pipe?"

Smirking at the idea, Thorin agreed, with a little glare at Heather, as if tempting her to try to get that close to him. He reminded her of a big bear in the woods, Don't poke the bear, she humored herself. She returned his smirk and asked, "How long do I have to get it?"

"Until dawn," Thorin said, with an evil glare; as if already picturing her defeat.

"I accept." Heather smiled at the idea of her digging her hand down his pocket to get his tobacco pipe.

The majority of the dwarves fell asleep, after singing a song. Heather had been studying Thorin's movements in the shadows. He must of felt her heavy eyes on him, because he would grab his pipe in his pocket. She soon figured that he would purposely keep his hand in his pocket or extremely close to his side; he must had been very determined to not let her steal his pipe. She understood his paranoia, because she had swore to get that pipe.

Thorin didn't sleep that night, only went out once in a while, to smoke tobacco; Heather knew that he was only smoking so much to tease her. Right before dawn, Thorin was smoking again, and enjoying the beginning light of dawn. He kept making smoke rings, and smiling greatly; he must had felt pretty empowered since Heather hadn't gotten pipe.

She knew she didn't have the skill of invisibility, to walk right up and take the pipe; she almost admitted defeat. Until, she saw Thorin play with a chain around his neck. She then, formulated a crazy, desperate plan.

Heather easily sneaked behind him and unclasped his chain. Somehow, with shakey hands, she was able to gently drag the chain off of his neck and maneuvered his key under his chin. Heather began biting her lip, far more afraid of getting caught than failing. She was almost certain that he felt her rapid heartbeat near his back and her breath on his head, but, by an extreme amount of luck, she was able to slip the key from him.

Hiding the chain and key behind her back, she was careful to not make a noise. The rest of Thorin's tobacco must have gone out, because he put his pipe back into his pocket. She stepped away from the somehow terrifying dwarf, and hurried back to the circle door.

"Haven't seen you all night," Thorin said to Heather. Damnit, so close. "You are very light on your feet, I'll give you that." He walked to face her, as if already forgotten her face. "But, you have failed to retrieve my smoke pipe." Thorin patted his pocket, as if to outsmart her; although his smile was warming. "You will not be joining us-"

"Actually," Heather interrupted him, but gave a sweet smile, "I was hoping that I could trade something for your pipe."

"Trade?" Thorin smirked, "thieves don't trade for the goods they want."

"I know," Heather backed up, afraid of what he might do when she showed him his key, that was around his neck, "but I'm much more clever than you think."

"You might be light on your feet, but you cannot-" he stopped talking when she held up the chain, with the key on it. Again, she saw that he was astonished, but that quickly changed into a fit of anger. His warm, kindhearted smile faded into a slight frown, and his amused eyes changed into something Heather knew only to well from her parents. He reached for it, but she quickly moved her hand back, out of his reach. He glared at her, as if trying to send a message through his eyes into her's.

"I am also soft with my hands," Heather got up the courage to say, but soon regretted ever accepting the challenge of stealing his pipe. His gaze was piercing, and made her shutter. "This key, for your pipe" she offered him.

He was not amused in the least, "Give that back, you thief." He muttered, only he was beginning to draw his sword.

This scared Heather, because she wasn't sure if he was testing how fast she'll crack with a sword to her neck, or if he was really displeased with her. He held the sword to her throat and narrowed his eyes. "Hand that over."

"Only for the pipe," she whispered to him, trying to keep her cool.

"What about your life?" Thorin threatened. Heather held her breath, still afraid that Thorin would really kill her; over a simple key!

After a moment of receiving the death-glare, Heather broke his gaze by looking away. She knew he wouldn't be defeated that easily, so she gave in and handed his key and chain back. She kept her eyes away from him and shivered at his icy gaze. More awkward moments past before Thorin walked around her, back into the hobbit's hole.

Heather wasn't sure if that was good or not.

**(I had forgotten to add a little part, but I will incorporate in to the next chapter; it will explain more about Heather and having an Ipod :D)**


	2. Chapter 2

She stood in front of the circle door, biting her lip and twiddling her fingers. Heather had never felt this disappointed, for something she was told to do. Swallowing her pride, she turned to enter the hobbit's hole; only to be stopped by the sound of Thorin's deep voice throughout the hole. He wasn't talking to her, but about her.

"She was able to get the key from my neck, my neck." She heard him growl through the wood door, "how do you expect me to trust such a-"

"But she passed the test, right?" Gandalf's calming voice interrupted. "Not only able to sneak amongst 13 people, but to obtain a treasured item of yours. In fact, I would assume that she surpassed everyone's expectations."

"She did not get my pipe,"

"However she got something more valuable; and that is what a good thief does."

Heather heard the stirring of more dwarves waking up and suddenly became afraid to face any of them. Her fear got the better of her, so she stepped back and ran around the slight bulges of the hobbit hole. She was able to find her window and quietly opened it. Sticking her head inside, she determined that it was safe and free from Thorin's unaltered death-glare. She shuttered just thinking about his evil eyes.

Stepping silently onto her bed, Heather left the window opened and eased her way onto the wood floors. Through her open door, she heard the low mumble of dwarves discussing her fate. She suddenly didn't want to go on any journey, even if it gave her the chance to get home; not with the possibility of Thorin's hard stare.

Heather knew sooner or later the dwarves would want to see her, but if she could hind in the dark of her room for a few minutes, she would. And that's what she did, for hind she did; with the occasional loud dwarf say some random bit of information about their heated debate. While she waited for a dwarf to appear in her bedroom frame, she quietly pulled out her dull green backpack from under of the bed. It was full of modern things for her camping trip: compass, hatchet, flares, her hiking boots, her tattered t-shirt and tight jeans (from when she first arrived), two extra change of clothes, leather gloves, and a solar battery charger for her Ipod, not to mention Trix Mix, gum, and a pot with a built-in strainer (for sanitizing water). And, she just noticed this for the first time, a weird dragon carving; her boyfriend's. He must of felt as if she would need it, for luck. Of course, all with a "Camping for Dummies" book and her phone, which was utterly useless to have for there was no signal, anywhere in The Shire. She held for phone in her hands, thinking of all the pointless messages and phone calls she had made with it, wishing for just a chance to hear her father's voice or her sister's

"She's not out there," Gandalf called from the dining room, "she's in her room; down the hall, third door on the left."

Heather quickly shoved her phone back into her pack and pushed it under the bed. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see Oin round the corner and peek inside. "Oi! She is in here!"

Cheeky, she smiled and turned around, almost certain that she was about to be lecture to. Another dwarf, maybe Fili, came behind Oin and loomed over his shoulder. "How'd you get in here without us noticing you?"

"Nevermind that!" Thorin called after them, "Bring her out!"

Heather felt like a prisoner being escorted to her death, because Thorin didn't sound too amused. Heather entered the living room and noticed a few dwarves missing; but soon found them, in the kitchen, helping themselves to whatever was left in the pantry for breakfast. Poor Mr. Baggins, he's not going to have any food for himself!

"Lady Heather," Gandalf started with a soothing voice, to counteract Thorin's glaring, "how in the world were you able to get Thorin's key?"

She natural instinct to be a smart-ass was arguing with her fearful brain. She knew after 22 years of being nagged at, with the look Thorin was giving, it was a death-wish to try to put some sort of comedy into such a serious manner; over a damn key. "I just snuck up behind him, unclasped the chain, and slowly moved it away from him," was what she was able to say, besides saying the obvious "with my hands."

"It couldn't have been when I was awake," Balin said, crossing his arms, "Nothing like that would have passed my gaze!"

"I didn't," Heather admitted, trying to avoid all of the dwarves' eyes, especially Thorin's, "I took it right before dawn, after I realized that I wouldn't be able to get his pipe."

"Clever," Gandalf said with a smile, "so we know that she is capable of sneaking and of stealing."

"She is still not coming with us." Thorin's deep voice made Heather shiver again. "I would never, never, intentionally put a woman in danger-"

"But she past the test!" Kili raised from his seat and faced his leader, more than what Heather could do.

"Yes, she did, but I never said that she would be accompanying us if she did-"

"That isn't fair! She's clearly a better burglar than Mr. Baggins!" Bifur, or Bofur, came to Kili's aid.

"Have you forgotten what is at the end of our journey?!" Dwalin stepped in to help Thorin, which he did not really need.

Everyone in the living room fell silent, the only noise that could be heard was the majority of the dwarves clinging pots and pans in the sink. Heather wasn't sure what was happening or if she should answer Dwalin's question.

"Home?" They all gave her a strange look, almost as if she had guessed right. After a never-ending moment of awkward stares, Heather explained her answer, "Well, isn't home the end of every journey?"

Gandalf chuckled a little and walked to face Thorin, "Clever, sneaky, crafty, and smart. I think you have found your fourteenth member and burglar."

In the next fifteen minutes, she was allowed to sign the long contract that was once in Bilbo's hands. She was also given time to write a letter to tne kind hobbit, for all of his generosity. However, while she was quiet, the rest of her new company was not, and eventually woke up Bilbo. He stayed out of their way and was able to catch Heather by herself. He approached her with a sad look.

"So you are leaving with them?" He asked her, as if he didn't know.

"It appears so,"

"You are heading to the east, correct?"

"Yeah, I was hoping that it would point me in the right direction of my home," Heather offered little encouragement, because she secretly suspected to never see her family or friends again.

"You came from that way," Bilbo stepped towards her and gave her a dreadful look, "I don't know what they have told you, and I can't stop you from going," another step closer, "but please, please, take care of yourself. A lot of good men have gone bad for the advantage of women."

"Is that from one of your books?"

"Well, yes. But it is true, unfortunately. And don't let them know you've lost your memory, they don't seem like the nurturing type; like myself." Heather smiled and Bilbo returned with a weak grin, "If anyone is to ask for your name, give them my name, Baggins. And tell them that you are half hobbit and human, maybe that will answer a few of their questions along the way."

"That's very nice of you, Mr. Baggins. I will definitely use your name, if you don't mind having a half-human, half-hobbit niece,"

They both smiled at this remark. Heather saw the look of pure disappointment in Bilbo's face; she felt bad for leaving him so suddenly, but it was for the best. She grabbed her backpack full of camping gear and walked past the depressed hobbit.

"Miss Heather, please never forget that you are always welcomed here, at Bag-End."

They turned and faced each other. Heather was on the edge of tears, and decided that this was the most appropriate time to hug him. She bent down and gave Bilbo a strong hug, which was returned to her. "I will. And thank you, for everything."

Heather released him and quickly turned away, afraid she would start crying. She left Bilbo in the room and entered the front hall with the dwarves preparing to leave. They were putting on their hoods and strapping on their boots. She sat on the floor and pulled out her hiking boots; Better time than ever to use these, she thought as she tied the thick shoelaces together on her clean brown boots.

With a large group of fifteen, the 13 dwarves, Gandalf, and Heather began their long journey toward the Lonely Mountain.


	3. Chapter 3

Thorin gave Heather a pony to ride, and instructed all of the dwarves to make sure she was in the middle of their company at all times. He made it apparent that he didn't want her near the front (probably to stay away from him) and that he didn't want to leave her behind. He was trying to be respectful, but there was really no need to make it seem that she was the most fragile woman alive. Maybe he was overreacting about keeping her safe; then again, maybe she didn't know what was out there. Either way, Heather was confident in her brain to outsmart whatever may try to attack her. She wasn't even much for muscle mass, in fact, she barely had any.

Gandalf was close to her as they began their journey, which was awkward, to say the least, because she was still wearing a dress Mr. Baggins had given her (as you can imagine, it was a little small for her). Ever tried riding a horse... pony in a small dress? Not the easiest thing to do, especially with 13 men all around you, watching her. Heather felt embarrassed, but was able to hide her emotions as the convoy began to lazily walk through The Shire.

Just as they left the cozy little village, and as they soon became surrounded by trees, Gandalf looked at her, and asked, "So, how do you know of Mr. Baggins?"

That was quick, she thought as a few dwarf heads turned around and some in the back leaned in to hear her. "Well," a quick clear of the throat, "He is my uncle."

"Your uncle?" a few of them chirped. "You're too tall," "Impossible!" "How did that happen?" All of murmur of Heather's relationship with the hobbit caused Thorin to glance a look back to her too, obviously showing his curiosity. Gandalf was giving her a suspicious eye, but she choose to ignore it.

"Well, you see," she bit her bottom lip and shrugged her shoulders, "My father was Mr. Baggins' brother, and my mother was a human." You wouldn't believe the looks she got from the dwarves! Some of amazment, others of confusion, and a few of disgust. However, Gandalf's narrow eyes never changed, only peered deeper into her. She returned his look, as if having a telepathic conversation with him; she knew that he didn't believe her, and he knew it too.

Thankfully, her puppy-dog eyes kept Gandalf silent and didn't point out that Mr. Baggins was an only child. And, luckily, none of the dwarves noticed this brief exchange of looks.

"A half halfing!" They began laughing at their obvious pun. Heather chuckled and so did Gandalf, Thorin was silent at the head.

Hours passed of the company continuously riding ponies on the dirt road. A hard rain had come and gone, leaving them all drenched. Heather, being from the desert, actually enjoyed the rain, having a huge grin on her face. Every dwarf was sopping wet and resembled a wet dog; except Kili, of course, being the only dwarf without a fully grown beard. Gandalf wasn't pleased with the weather either, but he didn't openly complain about it. Heather soon noticed that she was the only one with a smile on her face, which wasn't the case when they left Bag-End.

The rain had stopped about an hour after sunset, but Thorin was eager to get wherever they were going. They had reached a burned down house next to a small mountain. Thorin jumped off of his horse and began barking orders to the dwarves; look after the ponies, start a fire, begin making supper. Heather, however, wasn't ordered to do anything. Before she could ask the advice from the only other human, Gandalf lead Thorin away from the group and into the burned down house.

Since everyone seemed quite busy amongst themselves, Heather was able to grab her backpack and quietly walk into the forest. She had decided to change her clothes from her small hobbit dress to her originally hiking outfit. Quickly striping to her underwear, which was damp, she readily redress herself. Heather was now in her flannel shirt and ripped jeans. I wonder if me wearing pants will confuse them? All the while she was living with Mr. Baggins, she noticed that the women have resumed their "nature duties," as in cooking, cleaning, and attending for the children. Heather always thought that the "womanly duties" was hilarious, because, in her world, women can do anything men can do. So, she was a little eager to see how the dwarves will react to such a taboo as a woman wearing man clothes.

She collected her drenched clothes and noticed that the dwarves barely even seemed to see her absence. Instead of reemerging into the group, Heather fished through her pack, and retrieved her iPod. Finding a quiet spot, a safe distance away from the hurried dwarves, Heather relaxed under a tree and began listening to a few songs. She kept her eyes shut and imagined herself back home, oddly, doing her psychology homework. Heather strangely missed her college classes, especially her "mind-reading" class; that was what her anthropology professor called it when she entered it.

About an hour later, she heard many of footsteps around her. Afraid that someone would see her iPod, she shut it off and shoved it into her pocket. She stood up and ran to her bag of modern things and was immediately greeted by Thorin. He didn't seem too happy.

"There are you. Where have you been?" his voice was deep and frightening. So much for not pissing him off, she thought.

"I was," she cleared her throat, "looking for firewood."

"You were gone for all this time, yet have found none?"

"All of the wood I did find was wet from the rain."

He studied her, as if looking for something that gave it away that she was lying. Although, being as gifted as she was in deception, he found nothing. Sighing a quiet sigh of relief, he turned sideways and shouted to the rest of the company.

"I found her! Do not worry." He then faced her again, and actually looked at her for the first time in her new clothing. "What are you wearing?" Thorin asked, stepping closer to examine her.

"Oh! You mean this?" She grabbed her shirt, as if to examine it herself. Really, she was trying to remember which of her parent was relatated to Bilbo; unfortunately she couldn't think of which one it was. "My father gave me these for the small journey to my uncle's."

"Your hobbit father gave you his clothes for the travel to Mr. Baggins'?" Thorin narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. Oh shit, Heather thought. She was usually good with keeping up lies, but she hadn't thought about her "family" all day. "How is that those clothes fit you perfectly?" By now, Thorin was standing right in front of her, locking eyes with her.

She immediately thought of some good reasons, but she knew that none of them would satisfy him. Instead, she bit her lip and looked away.

"Are you done lying?" Once Heather didn't replied, he continued, "You may be able to fool my Company, but not I, nor the wizard," Wizard? Who is the wizard? "So, tell me; who are you?"

Heather swallowed hard and looked back him. Being as stubborn as she is, Heather wasn't about to tell him anything. However, she saw "an opportunity to control;" as her anthropology teacher offen called bargaining with an advantage. Thorin wanted something, and she had it. Let's see how well I really understand Professor Haskins' course.

"That depends, will you tell me where we are going?"

"I will not."

"That sucks, because I'm not telling you-"

Suddenly, Thorin lunged forward and pinned her to a nearby tree. Yet again, he held his sword to her throat; only this time, he was sure to press it against her skin. He glared at her as Heather began to quiver. "Gandalf might trust you but I don't."

Heather was too afraid to speak, so she didn't. After a moment, Thorin realized what he was doing, and released her. He backed away and quickly put his sword back into its sheath. They both seemed to refused to look at the other. But that didn't stop Thorin from speaking.

"I am truly sorry. In those clothes and speaking as a man, I lost-"

"You have deep, unresolved issues." Heather coughed up a quick diagnosis; her psychology course kicking in. "With someone, a man; of either high respect or regard to you." She stared at him, as he gave another surprised look to her. "I'm guessing that the person is dead and you can't make amends."

"H-how did you-?"

"I know things," smiling; more to herself, for being correct, than to comfort Thorin. "You made it obvious, after the two times you've held you sword at my neck. And both times involved bargaining, and you were at my mercy with the two times of haggling." They both began to straighten up and build up the courage to face the other. "You don't like haggling because, whoever you have these issues with, was either neglecting you, or did something to scar you from bargaining. Am I right?"

Thorin was silent and was studying the ground. Feeling extremely satisfied, and a little heartbroken, Heather walked over to Thorin and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You don't need to tell me who he is, but I suggest you do something to get over this." She thought for a moment, and then, reluctantly, came to a painful conclusion."Punch me."

"What?"

"Punch me, right on the face." She patted her cheek and turned her head. "You have no problem holding a blade to my neck, so just punch me and get passed this regret, so we can continue the journey on a more pleasant note."

"I will never harm you."

"Could've fooled me. Just punch me, c'mon! I've taken a few hits before."

"I will never harm you-"

"Jesus! Just hit me, square in the face! You'll feel a hell of alot better. Pretend I'm the one who gave you your issue."

"This is pointless-"

Heather could only watch as Thorin walked back through the trees and into their small camp.

Well, so much for confrontation, she thought. Maybe she wasn't as good at "controling minds" as she thought. I swear, by the end of this journey, I will find out what's wrong with him.

(((Okay, since my original work has left some people extremely offended and stopped following this story, it might be a bit choppy in places and won't flow as good as I would hope. But at least people will stop thinking that I condone abuse towards women. If you want to know what originally happened, just read some of the reviews.

I apologize that the rest of this is going to be choppy, weird, and that it probably won't make sense now, but I'll see if I can come up with something else.)))


	4. Chapter 4

Heather returned to the camp and began to ponder about Thorin's unresolved issue. She got quite a few curious looks from the dwarves of her clothing, and asked her about it; only she was deep in thought and didn't answer them. Their supper was the remaining of their stew from the night before (Heather was unaware that they had taken it with them from Mr. Baggins). The dwarves had noticed Heather's sudden absent-mindedness, and her new clothes. Apparently, they were trying to talk to her, but she was deep in thought. After a while of everyone noisily slurping up the meaty stew, Heather finally rejoined them. She noticed that Thorin was staring off into the distance, away from everyone else, and that Gandalf was nowhere in sight. Dwalin approached her and handed her two bowls of stew.

"Kili and Fili haven't eaten yet, can you give these to them?" Heather quickly glanced around and saw that all of the dwarves haven't finished eating. How could they eat so much?

"Yeah, no problem. Where are they?"

"They're attending to the ponies, remember where we left them?"

"Yep," she grabbed the two bowls and began walking through the dark forest. She followed a small path and relied on the smell of the ponies to find them. Once she found the tied up ponies, she immediately found the two youngest dwarves. They were wandering around, muttering either to themselves or each other. Heather was a little confused, but then again, she was traveling with a group of dwarves, and sent the last three weeks in a hole. She figured anything could happen.

Fili heard her footsteps and looked at her.

"Shhhh!" He never tackled her; but she was able to hold onto the bowls. "You have to be absolutely silent!" He whispered to her with eagerness. Kili quickly joined them and grabbed Heather's arm and pulled her out of the moonlight.

"Trolls have extra sensitive hearing. We must be quiet." Heather just barely heard the beardless dwarf say.

"Trolls?"

"Yes! One of them stole two of ponies. We need your expertise to get them back."Fili and Kili began to lead her into the forest again.

"Woah woah woah. Trolls?! And why do I have to get them back?"

"Don't be so modest," Fili said, grinning at the now pale, paranoid girl.

"You're amazingly stealthy and quick with your hands. It'll be easy to get passed trolls," Kili also gave a heart-warming smile to Heather.

"Especially trolls; they are slow-witted."

Before Heather could mutter some excuse to not enter the trolls' camp and sneak the ponies out, Kili and Fili grabbed the stew bowls and pushed her over a fallen tree. The fire from the trolls was a little far out, but close enough to smell the wood being burned. She jumped up and glanced over her shoulder; the young dwarves had disappeared, leaving no trace.

"God damn, they should be the damn theives, not me!" Heather grumbled and silently walked to the large fire. Through the thicket, Heather saw three enormous beasts hunched over a fire with a large stick over the fire, which was probably being used to roast something. Hopefully not the ponies.

She heard the trolls discussing something, but wasn't paying too much attention to the unintelligent babble between the three trolls. Heather saw the ponies on the other side of the camp. There was a makeshift fence around the ponies that was barely holding together with rope and clay. She didn't enter the light of the fire and sticked to the shadows in order to maneuver passed the loud-mouth trolls. Their slang language remained Heather of her old classmates.

As the trolls were talking about how they were going to prepare the ponies, which she found out were named William, Tom, and Bert, Heather was able to untie the thick knot and tear away the clay. She pushed the fence away and began to lead the ponies out of the camp. Only, they weren't exactly quiet about being taken away so many times. The ponies started making all sorts of noises which immediately got the trolls' attention.

"'Ey!" One of the giant beings called after her. Heather's heart stopped beating for a moment.

"What are ya doin' wif our horses?" Heather was about to turn around and face them, when all of sudden her accompany of dwarves jumped out of the darkness and into the lighted clearing.

The trolls were surprised and then became enraged. The dozen of dwarves began fighting with swords, daggers, slingshots, bow and arrows, axes, and hammers. The trolls were fighting back with large pieces of wood and, during the entire fight with the trolls and dwarves, Heather was able to mount one of the ponies, and ride away while holding tbe rein of the other.

Behind her, Heather heard grunts and a lot of slashing and hacking going on. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty, making it extra difficult to hold the reins. She was able to get back to wnere the rest of the ponies were and dismounted. Heather quickly tied the two ponies back with the others and started pacing around them. She was scared about their all safety; especially Thorin's. She felt bad for being so aggressive with his personal issue, but now she began thinking that she would never get a chance to apologize. So she decided that she would talk to him again after the battle of the trolls. If they get back.

She waited with the ponies for about two hours, slowing losing hope about the dwarves' return. Heather suddenly had the idea to go back to her own camp, maybe they were waiting for her. She wandered back and saw that no dwarf, nor Gandalf. Where the hell did he go?

Heather soon began to panic about her short companions. She looked in the general direction of the troll camp and could just see the fire. But, no sounds. The clanging of swords and the slashing of axes to troll flesh has ceased. Heather's overactive imagination made her think of the worst. She knew she wouldn't be much help, but maybe something from her own backpack could give her an advantage? Heather knelt down and began to look through her pack, most of the stuff she had was for entertainment uses; particularly useless. But there was that weird dragon statue her boyfriend had given her for luck. She picked it up and examined it in the moonlight; there was a small line near the middle. Heather pulled the two ends apart and suddenly a blade appeared! Why in the hell did he give me a knife?!

Well, it was definitely better than her Ipod and torn jeans to fight against trolls. Regretting ever agreeing to go on a camping trip, Heather reshealth her fancy dragon blade and ran to the other fire. She was sneaking towards the trolls' clearing, when she forced herself to stop and rethink her plan. Or, actually come up with a plan. Heather's mind just seemed to stop working when she saw the giant trolls again. They were arguing how to prepare their freshly caught meat. Did they get our ponies again?

"I don' know! I ever has dwarf befur."

Oh shit, Heather peaked her head over the bushes and saw that half of the dwarves were tied in discolored sacks while the rest were tied up over the fire. Somehow, across the dark clearing, Heather saw the heads of Thorin, Balin, Bofur, Gloin, Oin, and Bomfur. With her other keen eyes, she saw that Thorin was beckoning her over to him. Heather swallowed her courage and quietly rushed over to the tied up dwarves.

"Why we don' we just mince 'em?"

"No, that'll make 'em taste like chicken."

"I hate chicken. Everything you cook taste like chicken!"

"It dos not!"

"Dos too!"

"Shut up, the botf of ya!"

Heather was listening now to what horrible things they were thinking of doing to the dwarves. She had to hold back the urge to throw up. God damnit, I'm a simple urban girl, I can't handle this! Heather sat down by the rock Thorin was leaning against. She took a few quiet deep breaths and maneuvered her arm around the rock to touch him; letting him know she was there. Hearing the three trolls continually discuss what to do to her companions was making her sick, as paranoid thoughts were going through her mind as to what they would do to her if they caught her.

"I'm here," Heather just barely whispered to Thorin; extremely fearful that one of the trolls, perhaps Bert, would hear her.

"Run!" he hissed between his teeth. "Find the wizard!"

Heather's heart was suddenly glad again at the mention of Gandalf; particularly glad that the task of saving a dozen dwarves from certain doom wasn't on her shoulders anymore.

"Gotcha," she muttered slightly too loud and rustled some leaves while trying to get off of the ground.

The trolls ceased their talking and altered their attention to the sacked dwarves. Thorin was motionless and stared at them, silently shouting at Heather to run. She had peaked her head over the rock at the same time the three trolls glanced over at them. Her eyes met with the middle one, who was wearing a ragged apron, and her heart sank into her feet. She quickly hid again and held her breath, feeling as though her heart was about to give out. The troll named Tom stood up to get a better look and was able, to his giant stature, to look over the rock and spot the cowering girl. He didn't move, but he called out to her.

"'Ey! You, over dere! Behind that stone!"

Heather swallowed hard and clenched her hands in tiny fists. She heard, as clear as day, Thorin demanding she run for the hills and find Gandalf, and quickly. For some reason, she ignored him and stood up, while holding onto the hidden dagger in the shape of the dragon.

"What are you doing?!" Thorin particularly shouted at her, with a mixture of an expression; a little bit of fear and shock, along with anger (for disobeying him).

Heather walked next to Thorin and sneakily bent down and whispered, "I always thought I should have been on the Improv Team."

With a cheeky smile, and unknown found confidence, Heather stepped into the light of the fire under her dwarf companions. After a deep breath to keep her composure, Heather stood, almost as if she was proud, in front of the three trolls, Bert, Bill, and Tom. She looked at each of them and her eyes were met with each troll; they were all confused as to the way she walked, and how she was dressed. Later, she will find out that their confusion will help her enormously.


	5. Chapter 5

**((Author's note: WARNING- has some strong language, read with the prenotion that Heather swears strongly.))**

The larger than life trolls were watching Heather carefully as she stood in the dim, flickering light of the fire under the rotating tree covered with dwarves. Heather's heart was pounding and she was sure that it was going to give out at any moment. It felt like forever before any words were exchanged between the three giants and the small human girl, when in reality it was only a brief second. With shaky hands and weak knees, Heather stood her ground in front of the trolls and almost anticipated an attack from them. Her mind was racing with a million ways this would result; unfortunately most of the scenarios ended with her failure to save any of the dwarves and herself. Despite her increasing doubt in her tricky language and supposedly higher intellect, Heather was immediately regretting ever stepping into the open and not following Thorin's advice and running to find Gandalf.

But as they say, she made her bed, now she must sleep in it.

"Good evening gentlemen!" She said with an unknown amount of confidence.

"Heh heh heh, we's ain't 'gentle'," the one Heather thought was Tom said.

"Dat's for shure," Bert had laughed along with the other troll.

The third one, the middle on with the apron, had leaned a light in Heather's direction and sniffed the air. His face wrinkled and he withdrew to his normal sitting position.

" 'Ey, you smells like 'em short people!"

Dwarves have a distinctive scent?

"We're not short!" A voice called from behind Heather, from the sacked dwarves. She had guessed it was Balin, from his snappy tone. "You're just too tall!"

"Shut up, you!" Bill, or 'the apron one,' had demanded from Balin.

Somehow, Heather managed to laugh loud enough to grab every living thing's attention within the light. She wasn't sure why she was laughing, but she was; maybe the thought that she smelt like a short, hairy man? Either way, her laugh seemed to silence the trolls, and confuse the dwarves.

"Wus so funny?" Heather didn't know which of the trolls had said that.

She quickly straightened up and held her gaze at the enormous beasts. "Of course I'm going to smell like dwarf!"

This statement kept the curiosity of everyone and left a hindering, mutual desire for an explanation. Heather, very overexaggerated, rolled her eyes and sighed deeply in sudden disappointment.

"Doesn't anybody ever read, anymore? What I mean is, that, by the way you are cooking those dwarves, your entire encampment is going to smell like a dwarf!"

Heather crossed her arms and watched as the trolls began sniffing all around them; which was quite interesting because they were sniffing themselves, each other, the dirt ground, the surrounding shrubs, and rocks. She quietly sighed a sigh of relief when the trolls' wrinkled up their faces as when Bill sniffed her. They looked displeased.

"She's 'ight!"

"I'm beginning to hate dwarf,"

Heather was still holding the dragon statuette in her hand, or dagger rather, when the trolls came the clear conclusion that she was correct.

"Hey! You would smell bad too, if you were being roasted!" A dwarf, either Bifor or Oin, said while being rotated on the large lumber.

"See, roasting dwarves will make them sweat, especially when they're still alive. Although it tastes damn near amazing, if cooked correctly. The slightest miscalculation of seasoning, or use of incorrect wood, they'll end up tasting like..." Heather had to quickly think of something that would probably taste terrible to trolls. Which was pretty difficult, considering she didn't even know that such creatures existed. By sheer luck, Heather had finished that sentence absolutely correctly, "...chicken."

In unison, the trolls made a loud groaning and made hideous faces, as if the thought of anything tasting like chicken was making them sick. She couldn't help but smile in approval of her correct choice of "terrible" food favoring.

"I'm sick of chicken! I want something besides chicken!" Tom moaned.

"Yeah! I want something good to eat,"

"And I want you two to shut it!" Bill, the clear leader of this small pack, demanded of the other trolls. His huge gaze transferred from his brethen to Heather, who was hiding her profound feeling of proud in herself. "You! How'd I make'em not taste like chicken?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Heather held the dagger, still sheathed, under her arm and loudly clapped her hands together. "Right then! First things first," Heather walked closer to the fire, but held out the dragon statuette above her head, for the trolls to see, "I have with me, a secert blend of seasonings that'll make some awesome dwarf! Although," she took a moment and miraculously came up with this idea, "This blend will work flawlessly, once heated up on its own." She knelt down by the fire and ignored the many of dwarf voices telling her to be quiet and that she's just making it worse. As quickly as she could, and without even the dwarves above her noticing, Heather slide the dagger out of the sheath and shoved it directly into the hot, burning fire. That way it'll be sharp, and red hot. Now just to stall them until it can get that hot...

Heather was able to sneak a glance at the dwarves sacked up behind her. She found Thorin deathly glaring at her. What's up his ass? He'll thank me, after I save his life. She wasn't so sure if he was trying to tell her something telepathically or if he just greatly disliked her to the point he'd rather be cooked alive than have her save him. She really hoped that he was trying to tell her something.

After taking a deep breath, as if to get back in character, Heather straightened up and took a few steps backwards to see the trolls. She automatically had some smaug look on her face full of confidence and satisfaction, as if already approving her plan to free them all, which wasn't even formed yet.

"Wus in dat there seasoning?" Bert pointed at her hidden dagger.

"Ha ha! Its a secret! My own speciality that I came up with one day. In fact, it was an abnormally hot day in September-"

"Wus in it?!" Tom asked, eagerly.

"Hey hey hey," Heather used her hands to insinuate that they needed to calm down. "Its a secret. I can't just go around telling everyone otherwise it won't be a secret anymore."

"Tell us!"

Heather did her best to turn her nervousness into a heartful laugh. She had to project her voice, because otherwise her laugh is damn near silent.

"Look, I can't tell anyone! But instead, I'll teach you how to properly cook these dwarves."

"WHAT." A staggered sympathy of men shouted at her. She heard many of the dwarves screaming at her at once, but she was just praying to God that none of the trolls heard them say her name of anything else that might have given her away that she was lying.

Thankfully, they didn't hear anything.

"Shut it, ya hear?!" Bill demanded of the dwarves, whom complied immediately. This troll also stood up and clearly eyed Heather, probably very sensitive about his cooking abilities. "Whaddya know about cookin' 'em fellers?"

"Quite a bit," Heather began to sweat a little, unsure exactly what to say. To prolong her terrifying and anxious trolls, she began to walk, almost pace, back and forth of the fire. "I know that dwarves have tough skin, and thick muscles, which means that they have a lot of meat.

"However, if you really want to have a delectable dwarf-"

"I'll make sure you're delectable" Dwalin called from behind her.

"You need to slowly roast them over an open fire." Heather finished even though he interrupted her. "But," she stepped forward, closer to the fire, "The absolutely key thing about roasting a dwarf is the type of wood you use. What kind is this?"

"Well, it's-" one troll began to speak.

"Wait!" Bill stopped him. He glanced at Heather and gave her some sort of unknown threat. "Why don't we let our Master Chef tell us whaf it ish?"

With a smirk, Heather shrugged her shoulders and knelt down by the fire and examined it. Well, shit. I have no idea! Let's try to outsmart them, since they don't seem too bright; well, at least Tom doesn't. Instead of looking into the fire, Heather stared at her small blade; it was vaguely red. Just a bit longer, and maybe I can cut them free in one sweep motion? She stared at the blade, silently hoping that it would turn red right before her blue eyes.

"Well?!" Bill's loud voice snapped her out of her silent prayer and back into reality. "What kind is it, or do you not know?"

"It's hard to tell, because it's, ya'know, on fire."

"You don't know anythinf about roasting dwarf, do ya?" Bill leaned over the large lumber with tied up dwarves on it and glared suspiciously at her. Oh balls, she began biting her tongue inside her mouth.

She cleared her throat and refused to look up at the giant beast, for fear that he could read her mind or something, like a nervous habit of biting her bottom lip, might give her away. "I know plenty about roasting dwarves." She stood up and, still with her smaug look, she looked Bill directly in the eye. "In fact, the best way to roast a dwarf is slowly, and this fire is much too big for a slow roasting."

Heather began kicking dirt onto the fire, attempting to have a valid excuse to put out the fire under her companions. The trolls greatly disapproved; they began to moan and growl at her. She dropped her cocky persona and began kicking dirt feverishly onto the fire. The fire was nearly entirely out before Bert reached around the log and tried to grab her.

The dwarves started screaming and telling Heather what to do. Instead, she ducked and grabbed her dagger. It wasn't quite red hot, but it would definitely burn whoever she sliced at. Particularly under the log of dwarves, she thrust her small blade upward and cut the rope off of them. Oin, Gloin, Dori, and Nori rolled off of the log, leaving Ori, Dwalin, and Bofur still suspended on the log. Heather leaped out of their fall and straight under Tom's foot. He knelt down and tried to grab her. Heather positioned her dagger and stabbed it directly into his palm, pulling with all her might downward. The dagger got stuck as Tom lifted his hand back up. He screamed in pain as Heather dodged his massive feet.

Dori, Gloin, and Oin grabbed the nearest weapon and began swinging at the trolls while Oin began untying Dwalin, Ori, and Bofur. Heather decided that her presence was no longer needed so she make a quick leap over a pile of unknown bones and was about to start running into the forest. However, Bill, with her back turned, was able to acquire a grip on her being. She gasped loudly as his enormous hand wrapped around her and pulled her back towards his face. A few dwarves (maybe even Thorin?) shouted her name, as if that was going to help her. Heather attempted to squirm in his hand, but that only made him tighten his grip on her frail body. Her heart was racing like crazy and her mind, her cocky persona, and her amnesia-ed persona, disappeared and was immediately replaced with a terrified child. All those nightmares as a child, all those horrifying movies, and over active imagination triggered and made her absolutely silent. Her eyes were wide and her movements became still right as Bill brought her his ugly face. He smiled a wicked smile and lifted her above his head, opening his mouth. Below, the dwarves were crying her name, which was still not helping.

"The dawn will take you!"

Heather heard a familiar voice to her right. Suddenly, light from nowhere appeared and struck all three trolls. They all screamed in terror as their movements became more rigid and slower. Their rough, pale skin became very similar to rock and their joints froze in their last movements. She had no idea that trolls turned into stone if light hit them! Bill's grip on her, very slightly, released. She had a little move moving room, and since her captor was becoming stone, she wouldn't have to worry about a moving surface to climb out of. Eventually, Bill, Bert, and Tom all became solid stone.

She sighed a sigh of pure relief and exhaustion. While still in the trolls hand, she glanced over to see Gandalf over a boulder that was cracked right down the center. That was where the dawn light was coming from. Heather stared at Gandalf, hoping that he wasn't upset with her for trying to take three trolls on herself; he was really just a silhouette, but she recognized his stature, hat, and walking cane.

As the dwarves were freeing themselves and yelling at Gandalf for apparently being "late," Heather took a moment to relax and rest her pulse; while still in Bill's grip. After the last dwarf was freed from the sacks, Heather began climbing out of the massive stone hand that surrounded her. Apparently the dwarves had forgotten all about Heather, because they all seemed to enclose Gandalf with unnecessary questions, instead of leading her a hand. So, as if she had something to prove, Heather figured that she would get herself out of her trap.

Clambering ever so slowly to free herself, Heather's left foot was the only thing stuck in between Bill's stone ring finger and pinky. With one mighty pull, Heather slipped her boot off, and flung herself out of Bill's hand. She launched herself backwards and fell to the hard ground. Her head hit the ground first, then the rest of her body. Suddenly, all of her companions remembered her existence with the loud thud her body had made. They rushed over to her, just as her vision began going black, and fading into itself.

The last thing she remembered was when she heard Thorin touched her forehead, and said her name.

Hours later, Heather woke up. Birds were singing and the sun was hot on her face. She looked around and her head immediately began to pound.

"Holy damn!" she muttered as she leaned forward and rubbed her temples. She heard a chuckle right in front of her. When she looked up, she saw the old wizard sitting on a low rock.

"That's good," he said, "I was sure that one of us would have to carry you!"

"Oh, no," she replied, "I'm fine, really."

"You don't sound fine. You fell from quite a height."

"Yeah, trust me, I didn't enjoy it."

He gave a heartfelt laugh, which caused Heather to smile a little. "I wouldn't think so. Especially after the night you've been through."

"You could say that again." Heather looked around; there were no dwarves anywhere. "Where's the rest of the group?"

"Searching,"

"Why? For what?"

"Why, because I have instructed them to do so. For what, to find the hole those trolls were hiding in throughout the day."

She gave him a questionable look, but was too much in pain to ask for a more elaborate explanation. Gandalf's warm smile changed into one that held an air of seriousness. Heather refused to look at him, just like she used to avoid her father's glare when she had done something wrong when she was a child.

"I'm glad that you are up and alright; that gives me a chance to talk to you about your possessions." Well, fuck. Heather swallowed hard and kept her eyes away from Gandalf's. He continued, "I don't mean to rummage through a lady's things, however," he dragged her backpack in between them, the zipper was open, "I couldn't help but notice such things that doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps, you could share with me what this all is?"

She looked up as Gandalf held up her iPod with the speakers wrapped around it. After a moment of thinking of what the worst case scenario could be, she decided to just tell him the truth.

"It's called an iPod,"

"iPod?" he repeated as a child would repeat a new word.

"Yes. See, where I really come from, it's a very common thing to have."

"Ah yes, and what does it do? And for what purpose?"

"It stores music and you can play it anytime you want it to. Lemme show you." Heather offered her hand and Gandalf gave her the orange iPod. She turned it on and pulled the white earbuds out; her generation of iPod had the small built in speaker. Most of her songs were very much not what she wanted Gandalf to hear, so she put on a soft song. It was "I Won't Give Up," by Jason Mraz. They listened in silence as the song played through. After it was done, she turned it off and rewrapped it with the earbuds. "It's used for pure entertainment. See, where I come from, music is a big deal, and there's all forms of it. Most of the youth, such as myself, is driven and inspired by it. We often can't express our true feelings, so we listen to music to connect and fully express ourselves."

Gandalf examined the exterior and gave a small nod of understanding. "Our worlds are entirely different, right down to music," he said after a moment of silence. "I wish I could've since more of it, but there are more pressing matters to-"

"See more? Of my world?! You were there?!" Heather, despite her throbbing head, she stood up; uncertain that she was angry or relieved.

The old wizard's hat covered his eyes from Heather's view. He remained silent as he put her iPod back into her pack. She still wanted an answer, so she remained standing, looming over Gandalf.

"Yes," he looked up to her and continued, "I was there. Specifically looking for someone."

"Who?!" Then she realized that she didn't really want to know the answer to that question. So she quickly added on, "How did you get there?"

He held her enthused glance as he answered truthfully, "I was in search for the right person to keep company with these dwarves."

"Then why did you show up at Mr. Baggins' hole?"

"That's where you were, wasn't it?"

"Y-you were looking for me?"

"Not exactly," Gandalf stood up next to Heather and paced a little ways, "I was searching for a specific person, a woman." He turned back to her and folded his fingers together.

"Why a woman?" she asked immediately. "Thorin wasn't too keen about having me around, I doubt that he would want any female with his company."

"That is a fair observation, however, I know what will happen at the end of this journey, and unfortunately, I am unable to follow them through it all." He stepped in front of Heather, and placed both hands on her shoulders. "I know that his greed for his grandfather's gold will get him killed, along with his nephews and many innocent lives.

"I had an idea that, maybe, he will be distracted from his love of gold, onto something else."

"You better not mean me." Heather said, taken aback a little. When he didn't say anything for a minute, Heather knew her answer. "That's why I'm here?!"

"I meant to bring your sister; I thought he would connect better with her,"

"SIEYARA?!" Heather shouted at the top of her lungs. She stepped away from Gandalf, almost in disgust. Her mind was particularly beaten the living crap out of with the mention of her sister. "How in the Hell did you come to the conclusion-!"

Gandalf narrowed the gap in between them and lowered his voice to a stern whisper. "I was under the impression that she would make a better woman for Thorin!"

Heather stared wide eyed at the old wizard. They stared back each other for a while, as if their eyes were having a discussion without their knowledge. She wouldn't budge, but eventually Gandalf sighed in defeat.

"I'm sorry," he looked away, "I never thought your lives were in such danger,"

"Trolls are a pretty big danger," Heather scowled.

"I only had a glimpse into the future, and it was when Thorin's greed drove him in insanity. He dies defending his large hoard of gold, against men, elves, goblins, and orcs. Though, I believe we can save him from himself," he looked at Heather, hopefully, "He has already developed feelings towards you."

"Yeah, feelings of hatred. He didn't particularly enjoyed that I stole his key and I'm sure I did something wrong for saving his life!"

"That may be true, but he has also felt-"

Just then, an eager Ori ran down a small hill and joined with Heather and Gandalf. "We found the tunnel! It's in the mountain side! Over here," he smiled at them both and then beckoned them back up the hill.

Gandalf and Heather took a moment to exchange glances. Gandalf leaned in close to Heather's ear and said, "Why do you think he's been distancing himself?" Heather had never thought of it like that. Of course, she was used to having a more straightforward approach of things. She never thought that all this distance was because he liked her. The wizard saw her expression of astonishment, and smiled; he had convinced her. "Please, consider the real reason why I've brought you here."

He turned to follow Ori, but Heather quickly called after him, "Does that mean Sieyara is here? And my father?"

Over the shoulder, Gandalf said, "Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

Heather quickly found her boot and slipped it on. She ran to catch up with up Gandalf; she tried to pull aside to continue talking to him about her world, but by the time she could grab his arm, they just joined the dwarves. There was a large, well hidden hole on the side of the mountain. A few dwarves, with their backs to her, were digging feverishly. Gandalf had entered the cave and Heather followed him; she had nothing better to do and the hard beat of the nearly summer sun was hurting Heather's brain. The dark, damp cave provided an excellent shade for Heather's still aching head from her nasty fall out of the Bill's stone hand.

She just barely saw Gandalf look through some old chests in the back a little ways. Multiple and various forms of weaponry were leaning up against the dirt walls, among rusted chainmail, boots, and shields. Clothing from males females, and children, were balled into a pile and thrown into a damp corner of the visible cave. Heather suddenly had the thought that the trolls might have eaten her family.

Casually, she scanned the cave and walked to the pile of clothes, hoping to not bring attention to herself. After searching the small amount of blooded shirts and dresses, Heather was relieved that none of the clothes even looked like her father's or her sister's.

"Is everyone here?" she heard Thorin's deep voice say from behind her, near the cave entrance. Heather dropped all of the tattered clothes in her hand and stepped into the dwarven king's view.

He gave her a dirty look, as if giving her some unknown threat. This feeling made her uneasy, but she would be damned if she let him know. Instead, she just glared back. So, I can essentially save your life and you still give me the worst looks imaginable? This is going to be a long journey.

"We're leaving," Thorin finally said and turned away from her. He led a handful of dwarves downward, while talking to Dwalin; most likely about Heather. I love how gossip exists in this world too.

"Lady Heather," she turned around and saw Gandalf watching her from just outside the troll cave.

She made a smirking noise and shook her head, as if answering a question. "And you said he likes me,"

Heather turned away and was about to start walking with the rest of the short men, but Gandalf called after her. "He does," She glanced back at him, "He just has a funny way of showing it,"

"Oh, really now?" Heather said sarcastically. He replied with a smile and a small nod.

"Give it time; he will realize this before the journey ends."

"And how long is this journey again?"

"Impatient?"

"Not at all, I love long trips, although I'm not fond of getting treated like the scum of the Earth."

"In that case, let me give you this." He pulled a sheathed sword from his robes and offered it to her. It definitely didn't look all that special, not like the dragon dagger she had in her pack. However, it was obviously longer, which means it was already more valuable to her than the dagger she used on the trolls.

She took it and examined it. It was definitely a normal sword; probably one from the cave.

"Thanks, now I just need to learn how to use it."

"Not necessarily, a selected few are born with a talent to wield a blade."

"You think I have that?"

"I could guess, considering you sliced open that troll's hand with a dagger alone. Their skin is ever so hard and thick." Gandalf walked passed her and began following the dwarves on their downward path back to their belongings and ponies. Heather took a moment and then jogged after the wizard.

"Luck, I would guess,"

"Just be sure to never lose this sword. It glows blue when orcs or goblins are near," he told her while picking up her own pack, which she left in the small clearing when she first regained consciousness. She swung it over both shoulders and positioned the sword in her belt on the left, because she was right-handed.

"Goblins?" she asked as she tightened the hold on the sheath.

"Yes, and orcs,"

Heather had heard of goblins when she was a child, but only in one or two stories. She hardly believed that goblins could be real either, however, a troll almost ate her last night. Orcs were a new thing to her, but she was sure they weren't any better than trolls or goblins.

They caught up with the dwarves because they had stopped to hear of the surroundings. Apparently, Ori had heard a howl from a wolf, so they wanted to be extra careful.

It's a sad day when wolves are the only similarity to this world and mine. Heather went hunting with her father a few times, so she could take down an adult wolf. That is, if she had a rifle and not a magical sword that changes color.

Everyone circled up close and begin to ready their weapons. Heather, being a mediocre tracker, kept her sword by her side, and remained silent to listen to the few howls coming from beyond the trees. All of the dwarves were glancing around, trying to spot the prowling wolf, but Heather kept her eyes shut and attempted to picture it in her mind.

Suddenly, a loud howl was coming from her left. She noticed that that howl was different in pitch and was significantly longer than the rest. Faster than she thought possible, Heather dropped to the dirt. A gray wolf pounced over her crouched body and landed into the center of the small clearing. She looked up and saw Dori hit the wolf with his frail and knocked the beast on its side. Then Nori used his mace to impale the wolf's skull. Heather was terribly surprised at the size of the wolf. It was three normal wolves combined into a hideously power one.

At the sight of the wolf, Heather stared at the corpse in complete disbelief. "Jesus Christ!" she shouted. "What the fuck is that?!"

"A wolf-" Balin said, thinking she seriously didn't know what it was.

"Maybe if the wolf was taking steroids!" she said to the elderly dwarf.

"Keep quiet!" hissed their leader. Thorin glared at Heather in order to keep her silent. "There are more,"

More?!

Just as Heather was about to lose her sense of self-control, a sled, being pulled by rabbits, landed in the clearing, forcing everyone to jump backwards and hold up their weapons in battle ready position. A man, vaguely similar to Gandalf, was on the sled, holding the reins. He was covered in a thick layer of dirt and had terribly matted hair. He held a staff in one hand. Immediately, the dwarves lowered their weapons, almost disappointed that the man wasn't another wolf.

A man hopped off his makeshift shed and stepped to Gandalf. "I've been looking for you everywhere! What a coincidence you are here!"

"Hello Radagast," Gandalf greeted him.

"I was following this strange aura, when I ran into you! What great fortune!"

"What do you need, my dear friend?"

"First, I must find the source of this strange aura!" Radagast lifted his nose into the air and began sniffing around, as if he was a dog. What the hell is going on?

"Be swift, Dirt-Man," Thorin commanded the sniffing man, "A patrol of wolves are near, and we must be leaving as early as possible,"

"Yes yes, of course," Radagast quickly made his way to Heather. He scared her and made her feel very uncomfortable. But, glancing over the "Dirt-Man's" shoulders, she exchanged a look with Gandalf, who was particularly telling her to just go with Radagast's strange habits.

"Yes! It's you!" he seemed very happy to have identified her.

I guess I can't smell dwarf, or my own scent. Heather became self conscious since every living thing could smell her but she couldn't.

"You are a strange one," Radagast giggled to himself. She laughed, just thinking of something along of the lines of Look who's talking.

"How am I strange?" she asked, trying to play into his game so they could leave as soon as possible.

"You, clearly, are not from here; in fact, your aura is from a completely different world!"

She swore he couldn't have shouted that any louder. All of the dwarves were now watching them, and she felt every single pair of eyes burrowing into her skin.

"Wh-what makes you say that?"

"I know! I know I am correct! Your aura is very sophisticated, very intelligent, and very abnormal. Nothing in this world has such an advanced aura such as your's!"

"A different world?" Kili asked the man. "What do you mean?"

Heather gave a desperate look to Gandalf, who was looking around the surroundings, listening to the howling instead of the mindless chatter of Radagast.

"I am glad you asked!" Radagast faced the crowd of curious dwarves.

For some reason, Heather didn't think exposing her true origin would help. In fact, she saw it as that if he dwarves found out, they might kill her. Especially Thorin, since he was already a huge fan of her's.

Before he could start any sort of explanation, Heather quickly drew her new sword. "Be quiet!" Heather was about to swing her sword at Radagast's back, when she noticed that the blade was blue. She stopped and everyone's attention was on her blade. Thankfully, even Radagast was shocked at the blade and had stopped talking.

Gandalf finally rejoined the group mindset and was the most surprised out of anyone that the blade was glowing blue. "Those are orc wolves!" he said.

Suddenly, more howls, accompanied with horrible battle cries, echoed the forest. Heather looked around, just as another large wolf jumped at them. While still in the air, Fili quickly shot an arrow at the wolf and it landed hard on the ground. Dwalin used his war hammer to break the wolf's neck. Two more wolves pounced into the clearing, but were immediately bombarded with various weapons. It took all of the dwarves corroborating help to take these two down. Heather helped them by simply staying out of the way of the swings.

Radagast had pulled Gandalf to the side, as the dwarves collected themselves. They braced themselves for the impending attack from the wolves. Heather realized that Radagast must be a wizard, like Gandalf. Very quickly, Radagast mounted his makeshift sled and whipped his rabbits to run at full speed. He disappeared quickly after. Gandalf silently told the dwarves to run through the forest and into the plains that lie beyond it. With their weapons still in hand, they followed Thorin's command. Heather was right with the running mob of dwarves.

"What about Radagast?" she asked Gandalf.

"He can take care of himself," but Heather had heard him mutter "I pray that he can," which didn't give her any confidence in Radagast's abilities.

The company was able to run out of the forest without fighting anymore wolves, or orcs. However, the plains provided poor hiding spots. Instead of waiting out the attackers, Thorin was leading them in the opposite direction of the orcs riding the large wolves. Every now and again, they would spot Radagast and his sled riding the hills, leading the orcs away from the company. Heather's longer legs definitely helped her keep up with the dwarves, but they also made it harder to run inconspicuously. It didn't help matters any as Heather still had her backpack on and it was making all sorts of noise and making it increasingly difficult to run. So, she put her magical blade away and decided to carry her pack in her hands; to insure a more silent run.

Somehow, even to the aid of Radagast's fast rabbits, they were widely surrounded by orcs on the backs of wolves. They were standing in front of a large rock formation, where a large rock was overlooking a smaller one. The dwarves were preparing for their possible final battle. Heather was demanded, by their fearless leader, to stay back by the rocks, and to not run from that spot unless she could get away. Feeling that she wouldn't be much helpful on the battlefield, Heather only nodded.

The dwarves were positioning themselves as Fili began shooting arrows from his bow to pick off some orcs. A horrible sound came from one of the orcs, probably the leader, and the crazy mob of orcs riding wolves began to charge. The dwarves held their ground, ultimately bracing themselves for an epic battle.

"Lady Heather!" she heard her name being called from behind her. She turned immediately and saw Gandalf in between the rock formation. "Come quickly! I've found an escape!"

Not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, Heather was about to jump over the smaller rock when Gandalf stopped her. "Get the others!" Then he disappeared behind the rocks. At least this wizard can disappear into thin air.

Taking a chance, Heather tossed her pack where Gandalf was just standing and anticipated the noise that would've followed. However it was a larger drop than expected. She glanced over the smaller rock and found that there was a tunnel hidden in between the rocks! Heather faced toward the impending battlefield and used her thumb and index finger to whistle loudly. Most of the dwarves had turned around.

"There's a tunnel! We must hurry!" Heather used exaggerated hand and arm gestures to indicate where the hidden passage was. Some dwarves ran while the rest were slowly backing up, still ready for a charging orcs on monstrous wolves.

One by one, the dwarves blindly jumped into the hole. Their bodies slid down a surprisingly smooth rock path. It was a little bit steep, so they were sliding, rolling, and landing right on top of each other. Kili was continually shooting arrows into the distance, ensuring that his brothers would have cover as they ran from the mob of orcs. Heather stayed on top of the small rock, rallying the dwarves down as quickly as possible.

"Kili!" Heather shouted after the lonely dwarf still shooting rapidly at the orcs. "You're the last one!" He vaguely nodded and shoot one last arrow and then ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He dove headfirst into the pile of dwarves at the bottom of the slide. A few dwarves shouted her name for her to come down; and just as she was about to jump herself, an orc came from behind the larger rock and made a grab for her.

She barely missed the massive hand, but she wasn't quick enough to dodge the arrow that impaled her right shoulder. The force shot her back and down the hidden tunnel, onto the pile of dwarves.

A few dwarves had actually regained their balance and pulled her off of the grumbling mass of dwarf. The arrow was sticking out of her shoulder and thankfully, the tip hadn't gone completely through her bone and muscle. The remaining dwarves jumped up and defended what small orcs could manage through the hole; while Dwalin and Nori dragged Heather up against a wall.

"Good God!" she said through grinding teeth. She was breathing hard and fighting back the urge to cry; she didn't want to be spectated as weak. Instead, she simply balled her hands into fists and began stabbing her nails into her palms. "That's-ugh. Son of a bitch."

"More are coming! We gotta move!" someone informed them. Instinctively, Heather jumped onto her feet and ran down the narrow tunnel. Everyone followed her; either to get away from the horde of orcs, or to help her. Heather's body release adrenaline as she ran down the "one-at-a-time" path. She heard them called after her, instructing her to stop running, but she wanted to get as far away as possible while the pain in her shoulder was still numb.

Heather ran until there was a bigger area, where she could sit down and still have the dwarves walk over her. She slid down the rocky wall and fell on her butt, not really caring where she was or how much she was in the way of her company.

"Why did you run?!" someone grumble to her right. Heather's vision was blurry and having her eyes opened was making her dizzy.

"I-I heard more were coming." she barely defended herself.

"I could have carried you,"

"Any of us could have!"

"Just because I have an arrow in my shoulder doesn't mean my legs don't work."

"That doesn't mean you can run off like a mad woman."

Heather didn't have to see clearly to know that that deep, rough voice was Thorin's. She also didn't have to be a genius to tell he was angry at her.

She rolled her heavy head in the direction his voice came from and tried to look at him; but it was still difficult to make out the blurs in her line of sight. "I don't expect any of you to carry me, I can handle myself," she grumbled pathetically.

"An arrow has pierced your shoulder!" Thorin's voice became louder and closer to her face. She had guessed he knelt next to her. "You're lucky to be alive, considering orcs usually dip their weapons with poison."

"Poison? Well fuck." her breath became heavier and her heart started racing even more since she was running. "I think this one is dipped." she murmured very quietly into Thorin's ear; what she guessed was his ear through her near blindness and his mass amounts of hair and beard.

"Don't feat," Gandalf's usual calm voice was behind the blob mass of Thorin and next to two more blobs who could have been anyone of the dwarves. "We are close to an old friend of mine. He can help you,"

"That damn elf?" Thorin had directed it at Gandalf instead of Heather. "You planned this,"

"Does that really matter? She's dying," Heather knew that was about her, since she was the only she in a group of fourteen males. "And we need help, supplies, and a cipher of your map."

"Elves?" Heather heard many dwarves echo in disgust. "Absolutely not!" that old voice was Balin's.

"She will die before we ever reach The Misty Mountains." Gandalf shouted over the chorus of protests. "Then you will be out a thief and have your unlucky number 13!"

"I'm only here because you don't like having 13 people?" Heather was next to unconsciousness, but she understood when she was being used or toyed with. "At least in my world, we don't like simple numbers or superstitions get in the way of our hopes and dreams."

There was a short moment of awkward silence, before Gandalf turned to Thorin again. "Do you wish for her to die?"

"Of course not,"

"Then why are you assuming that your freud with the elves is more important than her life?"

Another silence followed Gandalf's harsh words. Heather couldn't blame him for being blunt and trying to save her life. Right before her head rolled onto her left shoulder, she felt herself being lifted up into some muscular arms, and being carried back down the path. She sneaked a quick glimpse of who was carrying her; and to her surprise, it was Thorin.


	7. Chapter 7

**((I believe I have corrected everything in this chapter. If, by some chance, I didn't, oh well. I'm not about to get killed by some of you who haven't read the first version of this chapter XD as much as I love the enthusiasm!**

**Okay, so, Take 2 on Chapter 7!))**

Many hours later, Heather woke up to soft candlelight and a chilly breeze. It was dark and peaceful with the aroma of fresh flowers and the sound of a distance waterfall and trickling stream. Her back was laying on top of silk sheets and a plumb mattress. Her muscles were relaxed and at ease; almost as if she was floating. Heather glanced around the room. There were a pleasant view of the waterfall between the small pillars and vines. The light from the moon was gliding through the windowless room and aided in lighting up the room. Heather stretched her arms forward, but was interrupted by a sharp pain in her right shoulder.

"Oh damn," she muttered quite loudly because she thought that she was alone.

"Be careful," a lovely voice told her. Quickly, Heather spot the source of the voice. A tall, elegant woman was near the wooden and was somehow hidden in the dark, although she was particularly glowing. "Although I was successful in removing the arrow head, your muscles must recuperate." The woman was wearing the whitest silk Heather had ever seen and had long hair that nearly touched the ground. Her facial features were soft and a pleasure to look at; she could've sworn she was an actual angel.

The goddess-like woman glided across the room with light steps and stood next to Heather's plush bed. "I am pleased to see that you are awake so soon."

"Soon? How long was I out?"

She took a quiet deep breath and slowly released it. "Your chase from the wargs and orcs had left your body weak once the poison was introduced into your blood, it quickly spread to the rest of your body."

"Oh," Heather changed her gaze from the woman to straight ahead of her. She felt as though she should be dead. How am I still alive?

"Because," the woman answered, as if she heard Heather's thoughts, "The owner of this house and I used our remedies to revive you and exfoliate the deadly toxic from your veins. It was the request of your traveling companions."

"The dwarves!" she gasped, truly surprised that they weren't crowding her room as she slept; too worried to sleep themselves. "Where are they?!" She sat up and looked around again, as if she didn't know that they were alone. Though the dwarves may seem obsessed with gold and priceless gems, she knew they cared about her, to a lesser extent.

Another soft sigh was released from the elegant woman. "They have left."

"Left? Why?"

She was silent and avoided Heather's eyes for a moment. Her hesitation scared Heather of all the "what-if's." However, she did answer her, but continued to avoid her concerned eyes.

"Elrond, the house owner, had asked them to do so, in exchange of cleansing you of the orc's poison."

"What? Bu-but-" Heather was devastated. How could they leave her? Why would this woman's friend force them to chose her life over them continuing their journey? That didn't make any sense to Heather. "May I speak with him, Elrond?" Heather asked, trying to regain her emotions before the fact that she was completely alone, again, has sunk into her mindset. She was afraid that she said her host's name incorrectly, so she decided to not butcher his name again.

"Yes, in fact, he wanted to talk to you as soon as you were able. However, I wish for you to sleep until morning, so you can-"

"No, I insist! I must speak with him right now, unless he is sleeping," Heather nearly demanded; she was rushing her words that she didn't seem to catch the eagerness in her voice until she thought she was being rude, then corrected herself. "I'm sorry, but I-"

"Please, there is nothing to be apologetic about. You may see him tonight, but please, do not push yourself for the sake of those dwarves."

The woman gently nodded and turned to walk away. Heather felt a little bad for displaying a sense of ungrateful to the people who had saved her life. Swallowing her weariness of a quick moment, she piped up the courage to call after the elegant woman. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. I'm Heather Baggins." Heather didn't want any one creature, elf, wizard, dwarf, or hobbit, to have any different title for her; so she kept with Mr. Baggins' sir name as her own.

The woman reached the wooden door and glanced over her shoulder. She had a pretty smile on her face as she held the handle of the door. "No, you're Heather Kenyon." Heather's mouth dropped open when the woman said her real name. Before she could question the woman, she continued, "I am Lady Galadriel" she left the room before Heather could bring herself to ask how she knew her true name and if she told the dwarves.

Heather had this theory that if her legs weren't broken, she shouldn't be laying in bed. So, since her shoulder was the only injured part of her, she jumped out of the plush bed and on the refreshingly cold granite. While she was asleep, someone had changed her clothes; she was no longer wearing her jeans and t-shirt. A white nightshirt, long enough to cover her knees, was covering her body. Long sleeves were wrapped around her arms but only a sling held her right arm up to provide resistance for her injured shoulder.

Taking a moment to be a ease, she stared blankly out the giant gaps in the wall to bask in the beauty of the area. Houses were blended into the mountain side and infused one another. If she didn't know better, she would guess that it was just one enormous mansion with countless rooms for an entire race. She marveled at everything she saw; the waterfall, the vines growing up the pillars and walls, the simple marble stationary towers, the color or the night sky, the moon, each star, and especially the multiple dimensions this magnifest building must have come from. If it wasn't for the throbbing pain in her shoulder, Heather could have easily believed it was a dream.

Sooner rather than later, the wooden door behind her opened and revealed a stern looking fellow. He had defined eyebrows and a pair of eyes that seemed to pierce into anyone's soul. However, his sharp features was accompanied by an aura of concern and peace. Heather quickly got the same impression from him that she got from Thorin; don't piss him off.

"I see you are fit enough to walk," he said while closing the door.

"Yes, I am eager to meet up with my companions."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," he replied, lightly shaking his head. They stood on different sides of the room. "I do not want to be responsible for such a being, as yourself, for being horribly slaughtered by a dragon or by the greed of those dwarves." The way he emphasized that made Heather feel uneasy. "Your death would be most painful for many for people than you realize."

"I know a lot of people would mourn my death, but I doubt a dragon will kill me."

"Did you not read the contract you signed in place of Mr. Baggins?"

"I read enough to know that those dwarves, my friends, need my help."

"I can assure you that there are many more thieves out there they can seek assistance from. You are far more important than you understand."

"Please, Mr.." Heather made a hand gesture as if silent asking for his name, because she was afraid of mispronouncing it.

"Elrond," he nodded his name to her. "There is no 'Mr."

"Elrond," Heather muttered to herself, to make sure she didn't mispronounce it. "Please, I want to help them. They have already protected me from-"

"Nothing." Elrond said fiercely. "You were already nearly eaten by trolls and a dipped arrow has within inches of your head. I doubt those inexperienced dwarves could protect you from anything."

Ouch, that's harsh. Thinking quickly on her feet, because that's what thieves do, Heather prayed that this was a valid argument. "Although, I saved those inexperienced dwarves from those trolls. I must stand some sort of chance against a dragon."

"Dragons are much more clever and speak indirectly. They are much more powerful and dangerous than trolls. What little chance you had towards the trolls is absolutely forfeit towards a dragon."

"Why do you think a dragon is going to appear with this journey of these dwarves?

Elrond sighed a loud sigh and shook his head. He took a few steps and held his hands behind his back as he spoke. "Clearly you are from a different world, or The Shire has very sheltered views and truly only dwell upon itself. At the end of your journey, Thorin's journey," he corrected, because he really wanted Heather to stay here, "A dragon is waiting. Sleeping, at the Lonely Mountain, he is guarding Thorin's grandfather's horde of gold. That is what they are truly after; an endless surplus of gold."

"They aren't looking to regain their home, with unlimited gold as a bonus?" Heather was very skeptical about the dwarves greed.

"I know what they are after and unfortunately it is just to regain ownership of Thror's legendary gold and treasure."

"I highly doubt that anyone can be that greedy for anything," Except maybe sex, Heather thought as she was reminded of her mother's situation back in her world. Her mother wasn't a pervert or a street girl willing to do anything for sex; in fact, she was a victim of a rapist. "Most people are concerned with other things, like relationships and acquiring their dream career; not becoming rich."

Elrond shook his head and joined Heather right inside of the large display of the scenery. He remained silent before replying to Heather's statement.

"It doesn't matter now," he said, with strange confidence, "You're companions, friends, have left you here."

"Only so I can get well," Heather stood next to the sharp man. She noticed his ears were pointed and his aura about him gave her a sense of experience and knowledge. Is he an elf? "As soon as I am able, I will leave your lovely home and return to them."

"They only need you to steal gold away from the dragon, nothing else."

"I'll learn to deal with that fact."

Another silent pause in between their discussion. Heather felt Elrond getting anxious and she could tell that he really wanted to say something, but something was holding him back. This was one of Heather's pet-peeves; if you had something to say, you better say it and get it over with. It killed her more if she was the one who wouldn't say what she was thinking, that's why she had confronted Thorin about his unresolved issue right before they ran into the trolls. Look what that got her, a dwarf who keeps grudges for life and an overbearing elf who didn't even know her.

"Look, nothing you can say will keep me here; as temptingly beautiful this place may be-"

"You will never find them."

"Excuse me? Find who? The dwarves?"

"Your father and sister. They are already dead."

"WHAT?!"

Elrond looked away from her and avoided her eyes at all costs. "Yes, if you leave now,

they will be dead."

Heather wasn't sure how to take this random outburst about her family being dead. So, her fight-or-flight reflex kicked in and it was fight.

"Bullshit! I can save them! Hell, I've saved twelve dwarves from three trolls. I think I can save two people-"

"I will not be responsible for your death!" he snapped and glared at her. However, over the years of getting that same look from her father, she has become immune to it.

"No one is asking you to," she grumbled at him. She didn't need a stranger, an elf, to look out for her. Clearly, she could take care of herself.

"You have no idea how valuable, and important you are. You are-"

"Getting pretty fucking annoyed."

Their eyes glared at each other. Elrond's eyes were like that of her father's, dark, piercing, and, to anyone but her, very convincing. Heather was unfazed by Elrond's psychic eyes, so she simply gave a "don't-fuck-with-me-and-my-family" look in return. They held their staring contest for a while. Neither of them were willingly to give in; that much was given just by their stances alone.

Finally Heather sighed loudly, realizing it was utterly pointless to try to "out-glare" the man, elf, that had saved her. "Please, even if they are dead, I want to honor them, show my respect for them, by giving them a traditional burial from our beliefs."

Elrond's eyes seemed to become slightly less harsh as Heather mention of her family's beliefs and traditions. Although, he was not to be hindered by it to the point of giving into her requests. Instead, he only shook his head and said barely loud enough for her to hear, "I simply cannot let you die."

He left her room.

Heather was surprised and thoroughly enraged. How in the hell are you going to deny me to retrieve my dead family?!

"His intentions are good," a soft voice said. Heather turned and saw Lady Galadriel by the door. "You are hurt and can easily get injured when with Thorin and his company."

"You can't tell me my family is here, and expect me to not look for them," Heather growled. It was her responsibility to watch-out for her sister; especially since their mother died. "I have to try, at least, to save Sieyara. She's fragile and isn't anything like me and-"

"Is that because you two don't share the same father?"

Heather bit her tongue from the revolting truth. Her father and she were the only ones who knew of this travesty. They both had sworn that when the time was right, they would tell Sieyara, but other than that, they haven't said one word to another living soul. Normally, Heather would have lashed-out at her, but Lady Galadriel was concerned and wasn't discriminating them for hiding their family secret.

"Well, that's half of it," Heather admitted. She didn't doubt that Lady Galadriel doesn't already know the second half of the reason of why she has to keep an eye out for her sister.

Instead of either of them stating what they both knew, Lady Galadriel walked over to a white sink and grabbed bandages from the floor by it. She turned around and looked at Heather with glossy eyes.

"I will help you find her, but only because of where you and her have come from. But, I have to change your bandages."


	8. Chapter 8

((Okay, let's hope I don't make another stupid mistake, eh? And remember, my ship-out date for Basic Training is 29 July. As I said, I will try to get this story at least till the end of the first movie, if not further. But I'm apologizing in advance for my 5-6 month absence (but, ya'know, someone's got to fight and defend for this country :))

Thank you again for not spamming my inbox when I delisted the last chapter for a day.

And thank you for the awesome reviews and follows and such :D))

Lady Galadriel was very helpful to Heather in getting her possessions and sneaking her out of the massive mansion. Heather soon learned that Galadriel had some psychic abilities that enabled her to transfer her thoughts into another's mind; she figured this out when she heard Galadriel's voice inside her mind. As they were sneaking through the darkened hallways, Galadriel was telling Heather about Elrond's abilities. Apparently, he is able to see into the future. One thing, Galadriel had made perfectly clear, was that there are always multiple paths in the future. She explained to Heather that Elrond only see glimpses into the future, and then can study each outcome as he may please. Before Thorin had walked into his house carrying a dying Heather, Elrond had only studied the path taken if Heather had stayed with them; and of course, she wouldn't die, and that is what he absolutely wanted.

Heather wasn't about to be deterred from getting her sister and father back, even if it was just their bodies. Galadriel knew of her determination and that's why she is aiding her now.

Instead of following a stone path towards The Misty Mountains (the only reason Heather knew of the mountains was because of the song the dwarves sung back at Mr. Baggins' hole), Galadriel led her into what looked like a horse stable. The sun was just lighting up the edge of the sky by the time they walked into the stable. Brown, black, and gray horses were standing upright, sleeping, in the stalls. Galadriel unlocked a gate to a certain white horse, that seemed to hold no flaw in color. Heather didn't know much about horses' mane or tail or their physique, but this one seemed perfect. Lady Galadriel gently petted the massive horse awake (Heather was used to ponies, not full adult horses).

Galadriel whispered something into the white horse's ear and it opened its eyes at Heather. Heather stayed back, a little afraid of such a creature as big as him; she had never seen a horse back in her own world.

"Please, you must hurry if you want to save your sister," Lady Galadriel said in a soft voice just above a whisper.

"Elrond said she was already dead,"

"No, but there is a highly probable chance that she will die. I believe you can save her, and return to Thorin before they get too far ahead of you."

Heather was a little mad that Elrond had lied to her, but she was more afraid of the beast that Galadriel was loaning to her in order to keep up to them.

"How long are they ahead are they from here?" Heather asked while stepping back from the horse.

"Two days, by midday today." Galadriel said as she threw a saddle onto the horse. "This is our fastest horse and he will take you to as far into The Misty Mountains as he can. Then he will return to us and you will be on your own." She led the horse out of the stall with the reins and out of the stable. Heather put one hand on its shoulder as they walked out into the opening dawn light.

"You said my sister is still alive?"

"Yes, but not for long. You must hurry to save her from the goblins. That is all I know about her whereabouts and condition."

"Does that mean my father is still alive also?"

Their eyes met in front of the white horse. Neither of them said anything for a while because nothing had to be said. Heather knew from Galadriel's sad eyes spoke loud enough. Galadriel looked away after a few seconds and began to busy herself with the horse. Heather got her answer and it was definitely one that she didn't want to hear.

"Well," Heather sighed loudly, holding back tears for her father, "At least I still have a chance to save Sieyara."

"He died, protecting her," Galadriel said, avoiding Heather's eyes.

"That's better than him letting her fend for herself." Heather took a moment and gazed at the beautiful house again and the waterfall. She wondered if she would ever see this scenery ever again. She hoped so.

"I guess it's time for me to head on out and search for Sieyara and then find Thorin."

Heather threw her backpack onto the horse and tightened the straps on the bottom.

"Before you leave, you should know that your beloved sister is in the grip of goblins. If you find her, you will find the dwarves."

"Thank you for the advice," Heather nodded her head in gratitude and clambered onto the horse. "And I will find her, and the others."

With those words said, Heather cracked the reins of the white horse and the steed began a full gallop towards The Misty Mountains.

She rode all day and all night, only resting for a few moments for her stallion to eat some grass and drink from a stream. Heather had found a loaf of stale looking bread in her pack, with a note from Galadriel that one bite of the bread would fill her stomach. So, obviously, that was the only thing she was nibbling on the entire hike up the mountain. It was near the morning when the trial began to narrow and less stable for a horse, but the steed was galloping automatically forward. Right after the sun had risen, the horse stopped. Heather glanced ahead and saw a very thin of the trail left; if you could call that a trail. She jumped off and threw her backpack on her shoulders. Behind the horse left, she petted his long snout and thanked him for being fast and kind.

As the horse began walking down the mountain, Heather walked in the opposite direction on the unstable and small path.

Heather forced herself to walk well into the night. Her luck never ceases to amaze her as it started raining very hard. Lightning was flashing overhead and by the mountain summits. As she was continuing upward, large boulders began flying through the air. Jesus Christ, are there giants throwing the mountains?! Heather grumbled multiple swear words as the rain and rock debris fell on her. Her shoulder was constantly throbbing in pain, but she wasn't about to lose her sister or miss this opportunity to catch up with Thorin.

After more larger rocks fell very close to her and her shoulder began to bleed again, Heather decided to rest in a nearby cave for a bit. The rain seemed to get in every little opening in the narrow cave, so Heather began walking further inward, seeking a dry place to take another bite of the elf bread. Naturally, the further she went the more darkness surrounded her. She found a relatively dry spot and sat down to catch her breath. Her body was aching, especially her shoulder; she could have sworn she was shot again in the same place.

Before she opened her backpack to eat, she heard footsteps. Heather jumped up, regardless of her injured shoulder, and pulled out her sword. It was glowing blue, but only faintly. Deciding to check out the noise, Heather slung her pack over her good shoulder and began to slowly walk further into the cave, with her blue sword glowing as a light. Suddenly, she came to an opening of pure darkness. And at that moment, her curiosity got the better of her. She took a step only to find that there was no ground under her. Heather fell down a trench and in the process, scrapped her leg that was on the ledge.

Luckily, Heather fell into a lake inside the mountain. The impact hurt her back, but nothing too crippling. Once she resurfaced, she gasped for air and started rubbing the water out of her eyes. Heather looked around and quickly swam for land. She was able to keep her sword in her hand, but lost her backpack in the fall. Now, not only her shoulder was killing her, but her leg was pretty banged up. Again, it wasn't anything life-threatening, but she still wanted to clean it and wrap it up before storming in the goblin camp looking for her sister.

"Jesus, that's just what I need," she muttered to herself in frustration, referring to her scrapped leg.

After catching her breath, she saw a large rock formation within walking distance that reached into the middle of the lake. Better lookout then here, she reasoned with herself.

She reached the top of the rock formation and began to strain her eyes to find her green bag. Again, using her sword as a light, but it wasn't bright enough to be used as an industrialized flashlight. Searching for a few moments, Heather began to swear continuously under her breath. Feeling hopeless in her efforts, Heather sat down and attempted to calm herself. But, that wasn't working either, since she had limited time before her sister died, according to Galadriel. Enrage, she tossed the sword on the rock formation away from her, almost disgusted that she was holding it. "This is fucking ridiculous." she muttered.

Just then, her eye caught something shining from the blue light of the blade; a gold ring?

Curiosity overcame her again, as she picked it up and examined it. It was simple and had no engrave marks. Who does this belong to? Right as she was about to try it on, she heard grunting and water splashing. Heather turned and saw a small creature pulling something out of the water; her bag!

"Hey!" she called out. The creature looked at her with big bug eyes, which creeped her out a little. "That's mine!"

She ran down the rock and around to where the creature was crouching over her bag. It was a sickly looking thing, almost as though it starved itself. It was pale and thin with bones visible everywhere. It also had big feet, which reminded Heather of Mr. Baggins. However, this creature glared at her and hissed at her.

"I've found it!" its voice was harsh and raspy; the same as when you've been coughing from a cold. "Itssss mine!" by the way of his voice, Heather figured it was a male, or unisexed with a terrible voice. The way he held out his "S's" annoyed her, like she was talking to a four year old.

"Bullshit! I fell from up there-" Heather pointed to a hole near the top of the inner cave "-and it flew away from me."

"Liessss! You tell liessss!" he swiped his hand but her stomach but she jumped back. Heather wasn't in any kind of mood to deal with more abnormal creatures, so she swung her sword upright and pointed at the crippled thing.

"Give it here, or I'll cut your jugular!"

He remained silent but continued to glare at her. His eyes began to dart back and forth as though he was contemplating handing over her bag.

"Throat," he said, looking at her.

"What?"

The creature eased a little and rolled his eyes. "The answer to your riddle: throat."

"I didn't say any rid-"

"Smiggle's turn!" he jumped up and began pacing around the rocks around them. Heather was confused, but if he kept his attention away from her bag, she might be able to sneak away with it; she was a thief after all. Plus, her legs were longer than his, so that gave her the advantage of running faster or with bigger steps. Smiggle faced her abruptly. Let'ssss play a game of riddlessss! Smiggle lovessss riddlesss!"

"Look, I need to be on my way-" Heather reached for her bag, but the creature hissed at her and swiped his hand again.

"No! Play, or Gollum keepssss!" There was a change in the look in his eyes. Heather wasn't sure whether or not to call him "Smiggle" or "Gollum." So, to keep him satisfied, and less crazy, she nodded.

"FIne, if I win, you give me my bag back,"

"What is Gollum winssss?" his eyes still threatening.

"Then you keep my bag, and I leave," Heather was slightly above average with riddles but she needed to clean her fresh wound and return her search for Sieyara.

"Deal!" his eyes became cheerful again and he bounced around. Heather was slightly disturbed with his bipolar illness, but if it meant getting her bag back, with all her homely items, then she would hold her tongue and play his game.

"This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down." Smiggle said.

She strained her mind to back when she was living with Mr. Baggins; he had told her riddles like this one during their evening supper, and second supper. He had told her this one, exactly, near the first few days she was with him, but she could barely remember the answer. Like a shot in the dark, Heather replied with "Time?"

The look on Smiggle's face was distorted and disgusted. But, he said, "Correct. Your turn."

A few of the riddles Smiggle told her she knew by luck and the rest by Mr. Baggins telling her the answer long ago. Gollum, or Smiggle?, was getting anxious and she could tell that he was running out of riddles. She was too.

The next one he said to her was:

"Voiceless it cries,

Wingless flutters,

Toothless bites,

Mouthless mutters."

A similar one like this riddle was told to her back in her home world, so she guessed it quickly. "It's the wind."

Gollum glared at her and hissed at her, "Correct."

Of course, she was now out of any usable riddles to her depressing look friend. Normally, she would use a riddle from her world, but being on such a time restraint, she couldn't think of any. "Give me a moment to think of one," she said and turned around to avoid his eyes seeing through her. His eyes seriously creeped her out, and she didn't want to be watched anymore. She slapped her thighs, as if that was going to give her inspiration; and it surprisingly did. Heather felt something in her pocket and said aloud, "What've I got in my pocket?" She didn't realize that she had said that loud enough for Gollum to hear.

"That'ssss not fair!" he shouted at her.

Heather turned around and saw him freaking out. He seemed up to the task of guessing what she had, but he wasn't sure what to say. Being satisfied with this unnatural riddle, Heather crossed her arms and gave Gollum a smug look of triumphant.

"I'll give you three chances," Heather told him, because she doubted that he would ever be able to get the correct answer.

"Handsss! Your handsss are in your pocket!" Heather shook her head and held up her hands, showing he was incorrect.

He growled and began to crawl around, which Heather figured it was his pacing. He scratched his head and then another idea came to him.

"String!"

"Nope," Heather said, crossing her arms. "That's two, one last guess."

He moaned in disgust as he saw his prizing slipping away from him. Heather sat down and crossed her legs, still with a smug look on her face.

Gollum looked around and grunted in frustration. Then he glared at her and said, "Nothing, you got nothing in your pocket!"

"WRONG!" Heather jumped up and quickly grabbed her backpack. She threw it over both shoulders and tightened her buckle that held her sword. "There is something definitely in my pocket. And that's three guesses! I win!"

"NO, nonononononononononononono!" Gollum started running around and banging his head against the wall in defeat. While he was distracted with her victory, Heather quietly stepped backwards behind a rock. After taking a deep breath, Heather ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction of the moaning creature.

Heather's leg was stinging and her shoulder was throbbing, but she kept running. Eventually, the creature, whether his name be Gollum or Smiggle, lost her trail and gave up chasing her; or was following the wrong trail. At the end of a passage, Heather began to see light! She had been in the dark for so long that the light was hurting her eyes. Like a moth to a streetlight, Heather lazily walked up to the end of the passage. Instead of being welcomed by sunlight, torches flickered in an enormous opening. Is this mountain hollow? Heather squatted down and stuck to the shadows as she saw hideous creatures within the enormous hollow. She slid her sword a little bit out and saw that the blade was blue; she remembered what orcs looked like, so these much be goblins.

There were a mass of them assembling on top of wooden walkways that didn't particularly seem very stable because of the way they were built. Heather scanned the hundreds of thousands of goblins for any sign of her sister. It became increasingly difficult to differentiate goblins and the walls and torches. She sworn in disgust and in anger. Heather didn't know what time it was or how long she had before Sieyara was foretold would die. In desperate frustration, Heather began her long search on foot for her.

She snuck around small parties of goblins here and there. Nearly all of them were carrying some sort of weapon, which made Heather be extra sneaky, just to avoid any fighting that would draw the attention of all of them. Also, she didn't know if they dipped their blades or arrows with poison, and wasn't about to find out.

Thankfully, her leg stopped bleeding and the only thing giving her discomfort was her shoulder. No matter how well Galadriel wrapped it, there was no way her wound wouldn't reopened; especially resuming her journey and falling into a lake.

In her search for Sieyara, Heather was able to locate a few exits from the monstrous cave. She forced herself to remember each and everyone, because she knew that she'll need a quick getaway. From the small amount of light emitting from the outside, Heather determined that it was sometime in the night, hopefully at the beginning of the night. But from the fear of dawn approaching sooner than expected, Heather hurried down more passages and searched as many "rooms" as she could find that were empty.

In must have been about an hour of as much thorough searching as she could have done. The goblins were talking, if you could understand their byproduct of the English language, about something with eagles? Heather wasn't too concerned with it, because she was only focused on getting her sister back, alive. She looked under every possible rock and pebble, but there wasn't any sign of Sieyara anywhere. Normally, when faced with something like being captured by goblins, Sieyara would scream bloody murder and kick everything in her way of escape. That probably only gave the goblins more reason to trap her.

Just as Heather was about to give up her efforts and simply lay down in her metaphorical grave, she heard one of the goblins mention something about their prisoner; a human female! The conversation was short, and barely understandable, but Heather knew they were referring to Sieyara. The two hideous creatures walked out of a room and shut a makeshift wooden door. Heather pushed against the shadows as the two goblins walked right passed her. She was extremely thankful for their unobserved eyes, because one held an axe and the only a mace, and she wouldn't be able to even cut them let alone defeat them both to get to Sieyara.

For a third time, Heather's curiosity got the better of her. She ran to the wooden board, as soon as the goblins rounded the corner, and silently opened it. Heather quietly closed the door and turned around to see two terrifying sights. One: her sister; only wearing black spandex for very short shorts, so particularly everything was all out in the open for display. Her body was littered with multicolored bruises and cuts. She was naturally pretty skinny, but Heather knew that she hadn't been eating, although there was a plate full of rotting fruit. Probably starving herself instead of being tortured. Sieyara was sitting on the ground with her hands tied behind her back next to a tall, thick wooden pole. To make sure their prisoner wouldn't escape. Her eyes were shut but her chest was faintly lowering and expanding.

The second, was a guard goblin. To her amazing luck, he was facing Sieyara, and not the door.

Heather stood completely still as the goblin shifted himself for a more comfortable way of sitting. She felt her heart racing and her palms getting sweaty; she was sure her loud thumping from her heart hitting her rib cage would give her away. With a shaky hand, Heather placed a hand over the hilt of her sword and slowly began to pull it out, very careful not to make the noise it usually made when unsheathed quickly. Once her blue sword was out, she swallowed the last of her breath, and then stepped ever so tenderly to the muttering goblin. She didn't notice that, sometime during her search for her little sister, Heather had slipped on the golden ring from Smiggle, or Gollum.

According to the shadow given from the few candles on the table, a sword was levitating in the air. It was wringing back for a tremendous swing. The goblin saw the shadow and turned just in time for Heather to cut his throat. The lifeless body fell to the ground. Not a sound was made besides the loud thud of the goblin hitting the floor.

Quickly, Heather put her sword away and jumped over its body to reunite with her sister.

((I swear this is the last time shift in this chapter! I just want this long-ass chapter to be done with...))

It took a few minutes, but Heather was able to get Sieyara awake. The first thing they did was silently cry into each other; then they both took a bite of the elven bread that Galadriel had given her. Heather knew the next thing she had to do was somehow meet up with Thorin; her sister stood a better chance of surviving if there were more of them around. Plus, she missed him.

Since the rest of her clothes were left or discarded at the Last Homely House, Heather gave Sieyara the shirt off her back to her sister. Sieyara was usually the one to deny such meaningful gifts, but after 2 months of being tortured, she greatly accepted it. Heather was thankful that Sieyara was smaller than her, so then when they met up with Thorin, it would seem like she was wearing a dress. Of course, Heather was now shirtless, but her bandages from Galadriel covered enough of her breasts to not make any of the dwarves stare; hopefully.

They left Sieyara's torture room and snuck around until they found an exit, which was surprisingly easy since all of the goblins were missing. Before they ran into the moonlight, they heard some sort of demonic cheer from behind them. Sieyara has heard this kind of cheer before.

"They got a new prisoner." she muttered, clearly terrified of the sound. "Maybe a few; they seem very enthused."

"How many is 'a few'?" Heather, by her worrisome womanself, had an eerie feeling that she knew who was their next victims.

"I don't know, maybe ten?" Sieyara was disturbed with talking about this subject and obviously wanted to leave and never come back.

Heather sighed as she had such a strong feeling that it was the dwarves who were caught. Three, stupid trolls got them, I'm sure about ten thousand goblins could get them.

"Sweetie, we have to go back,"

"No! Please!" tears filled Sieyara's eyes. "I can't go back! Not when I'm so close to getting out!"

"Okay, I won't make you come back with me, but I need to save them."

"What if it isn't your dwarf friends?!" she snapped as Heather walked around her and towards the massive assembly of nightmares.

"Once you've been with them, after you've been through what we've been through, you just know," Heather smiled back at SIeyara, who was terrified to death. She felt guilty for leaving Sieyara after just getting back with her, but Heather knew she had to do this. Before tears rolled down her face, Heather gave SIeyara one last hug, and gave the rest of the loaf of bread to her sister. "Run. Don't stop until I find you. When I do, I will be accompanied by thirteen charming dwarves and one wizard." Before Sieyara could say anything, Heather quickly interrupted with, "I will find you. And, I want you to know that I love you, and obviously, will kill to stay with you," Another heart-warming smile from Heather before she turned around and ran down the path she and her sister just took.

Down below her, Heather knew Thorin and everyone else were being held against their will by the many of goblins. How she planned on freeing them was something to be determined; but with her experience with trolls, she had more than enough confidence to save not only the dwarves, but herself and her sister.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey faithful readers!**

**This chapter was actually completed in one day, yay me!**

**Remember that my shipout date is 29th of July, but I don't think I have to worry about getting to the end of the first Hobbit movie at this rate. Oh, and I'm going to make a poll, asking if, when I get back and watch the second movie, if I should just add onto this story or make a part 2. I'll do that as soon as I figure out how. So, read, review and enjoy!**

It was as if she was running down into the bowels of Hell. The further she ran down, the more terrible the smell was and uncomfortably hotter it was getting. Torches were lighting the end of the passage, which Heather could tell was full of goblins. As she neared the thunderous cheer and body heat, Heather took a moment to examine all of that her bag contained. She reasoned with herself the significance and possible usefulness of each item. **The only helpful things here are the compass, flares, and hatchet**. She frowned as all of those common camping tools were particularly useless. **The flares might come in handy, but only if I used them near the goblins' faces.**

Heather only had three flares and yet there were near ten thousand goblins. Sighing, Heather tossed the backpack over her shoulders and ran down the path. She stopped right before the opening to a large clearing. Multiple stairs, roads, and bridges were created with unstable looking wood. Countless goblins were littered the enormous walls of the inner mountain. There was one pillar that seemed most important to the goblins, as their attention was diverted to it. Heather could just barely see a mass of pale goblin flesh on top of the flimsy looking pillar. Two bridges were connected to it, one that was lined with pikes with skulls on them and the other that was guarded by two goblins. By a closer look, Heather was able to just make out the figures of bearded men.

**Ha! I was right.** Although, being correct in this instance meant bad news for the entire party of dwarves and Heather. Remembering that gold ring she found, that can apparently make her invisible, she slipped it on her left ring finger.

As if by habit, Heather crouched down as she snuck behind all of the minor goblins at the ledges of the platforms. She had one hand on her backpack and another on her sword; foolishly waiting to take on all of the goblins if they spotted her.

She could just barely hear what the largest goblin was talking about, but it must have been something all of the other goblins approved of because they would randomly begin cheering. Her heart was racing like crazy when she began to walk across the bridge; it would sway to and fro just by the vibrations of the loud goblins. After careful walking and sneaking, Heather was able to appear right behind the two guard goblins. Thankfully, they were facing away from her and towards the pack of weaponless dwarves. Taking one large breath, Heather quickly pulled out her blue sword and swung it.

The glowing sword hit the guard on the left, cutting its arm severely. It moaned in pain as Heather quickly kicked it off of the bridge. The second guard yelled some incomprehensible word and swung its axe downward right next to Heather. She jumped back, still unsure about the reliability of the wood, and used both hands to swing the blade at its throat. Luck was on her side as she was able to slice a good portion of its throat. It fell forwards and began coughing up some discolored blood.

The continuous cheering of goblin approval ceased in a heartbeat. Heather looked around, finding that all of the ten thousand eyes were staring at her. Though the ring made her invisible, she was standing next to the injured goblin. Feeling that this was an appropriate time to reveal herself, she removed the ring and slipped it into her jean pocket.

"Heather!" the dwarves said staggerly. She smiled at the company and walked forward, right up to the massive pile of goblin flesh.

A crown was placed on top of the hideous creature.** The King of Goblins? Why does this thing exist? **He looked down on the half-naked Heather in disgust.

"How did you kill my finest warriors?!" he bellowed to her.

"I'll tell you, if you release my friends," she used her thumb to gesture to the dwarves.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT," he shouted crossed his two flaps of arms. "No knowledge is worth the freedom of Thorin Oakenshield!"

Heather stepped back towards them as the crowd of goblins mumbled an agreement around them.

"Why does everything want to kill you?" she asked Thorin.

He looked at her and made it very apparent that he disapproved of her topless outfit. "If I tell you, if you explain why you are missing the upper half of your wardrobe." he changed his sight away from her, as if he couldn't stand the sight of looking at her half naked.

**Well then! You missed your opportunity to look at boobs, that's your fault. **

She shrugged off her bag and unzipped it. Heather grabbed a flare and shut her bag before replying to Thorin's 'bargain.'

"Deal." Heather smiled at him. He gave her an unamused look. Over her shoulder, Heather address the dwarf company as best as she could. "When you see fire, run like hell."

Before any of them could question her, she walked back to The King of Goblins. He made a similar facial expression as Thorin; which was greatly amused Heather. With the white plastic with a red cap flare in hand, Heather stood in front of the disgusting creature with a makeshift crown on its head.

"And what do you plan to do with that little stick?" he laughed at her which was accompanied by the mob of goblins.

Heather shook her head, as if answering his question with a "no" response. "You know what they say, big things come in small packages." None of the goblins stopped their laughing, in fact, she could tell that some of them even began laughing harder. To prove her point, and to end her pointless conversation with The Goblin King, Heather pulled the red cap off of the flare.

A long trail of red fire burst from the exposed opening, unintentionally setting the edge of the platform on fire. Heather tossed the flare towards The Goblin King, who flinched as the fire stick neared his face. The crowd of goblins gasped and began ranting and becoming enraged for the attack on their king. She stepped back, uncertain of how quickly the platform would combust into flames. The dwarves ran passed her, taking up their weapons as they ran. Thorin, surprisingly, grabbed his curved sword and axe, then grabbed Heather wrist. He pulled her away from the fire and onto the bridge.

From behind, they heard The Goblin King yell for the minor yet multiple goblins to attack the dwarves began to fight the oncoming goblins as quickly as possible to escape the fire. Heather pulled out her sword and helped them the best as she could. They ran across the bridge and under other platforms full of angry goblins. Dwalin tossed Ori his warhammer and began using an axe he knocked off of a goblin. Ori was surprisingly effective with knocking goblins off of the platforms. Nori was right behind Ori, using his mace to help clear out the raging goblins out of the way of their escape. Kili was shooting goblins ahead of Nori and Ori to ease their need to knock goblins off of the high platforms while Fili covered his brother from the blades of goblins. Balin and Dori used their swords to cut away any goblins ballsy enough to jump in their way. Gloin was hacking any goblins that anyone might have missed. Bofur used his mining pick, Bifur attacked with a bill, or a spear looking weapon, and ironically enough, Bombur used a ladle to pound goblin heads in as well as Oin was smashing the faces of the goblins. Thorin kept close to Heather, as if her being shirtless would leave her more vulnerable to injury; which is true.

The large company of randomly hacking, slashing, and pounding dwarves fought their way through a small fraction of goblins. They ran as fast as they could, by Heather's direction, to the exit Sieyara escaped out of. Right before they reached the actual edge of the inner mountain, the company was suddenly surrounded by a mob of goblins right before them and right behind them. They were trapped on a flimsy bridge. The dwarves huddled close but kept their weapons raised; bracing for an ambush.

"Nice try, Oakenshield," the hideous King grumbled as he took a step closer. "You aren't going anywhere,"

The goblins from behind were beginning to poke Bofur, Bifur, Bombur, and Oin to walk forward, because they were the last of the dwarves. Heather and Thorin were right in the middle until The King began talking, if you could consider that horrible gragle of words talking, then Thorin pushed his way to the front of the pack.

"You are a very wanted dwarf," The King gave a sinister laugh as Thorin approached the hideous creature. "You must be insane to believe I'd let you and your company to just walk over my mountains,"

"As I recall," Thorin kept his sword, the Goblin-Cleaver, raised slightly as if he would need it in a moment, "The Eagles were in control of The Misty Mountains."

"You recall wrong!" The King of Goblins snapped at Thorin.

Heather stopped paying attention to their mindless conversation about who occupied The Misty Mountains. Instead, she made her way to the edge of the bridge, looking for the exit she had led Sieyara out of. There was one passage that looked familiar in the sense of her running down it. However, her luck was pretty well drained at this point, so a horde of goblins were blocking the way. As the leader of both parties passive-aggressively conversed, Heather put her sword away and slipped the gold ring on her finger. No one noticed her sudden disappearance because they were all watching Thorin and The Goblin King stall each other. Heather lowered herself down to the underbelly of the bridge and looked for support beams; her plan was to break the beams and ride the bridge down the slope like a sled to the exit, while knocking all of the goblins out of the way.

She clambered through the patternless wooden stakes and determined which of the randomly assembled wood pieces held the majority of the weight. She first quickly cut the ropes holding the bridge with the mountain edge and the pillar adjacent to it. Once both ropes were cut, the bridge fell slightly under the weight of thirteen dwarves and one enormous Goblin King. However, it did not slide. Suddenly, Heather heard some of the dwarves call for her, apparently afraid that she had fallen off. To ease their worry, she quickly climbed back on top and took the ring off.

Just then, a flash of lightning appeared from nowhere and in between The Goblin King and Thorin stood Gandalf. The wizard pulled his sword from its sheath and swung it across The Goblin King's stomach. He moaned in pain and toppled on his knees. Gandalf swung again, but Heather couldn't see where. There was a collective gasp from the minor goblins and their somehow beloved king had been slain. The sudden impact from the massive beast's weight on the bridge caused the support beams to break and snap in half.

The bridge fell downward as the weaker wooden stakes were apparently for show as they offered no resistance. The entire company held onto their weapons as the bridge slid down the slope and towards Sieyara's exit. Goblins under the wooden sled jumped out of the way while others were too slow and became crushed. Most of the dwarves screamed in fear, Heather did too. Gandalf and Thorin remained silent as they watched the goblins die under the wooden spikes from the bridge breaking the planks into small daggers.

Heather shut her eyes as she began to feel Negative G; or the feeling you get falling from the peak of a roller coaster. She hated roller coasters, absolutely despised everyone Sieyara made her ride. This was definitely on her Top 5 list of Things She Would Never Do Again. Ever

The bridge began to dwindle as the wooden planks were shooting off of the underneath and the sides. The once bridge was gaining speed, because gravity still applied in this world. Although, their ride ended abruptly as a large, stable rock blocked their immediate path to the exit. The sudden stop caused a few dwarves, including Thorin, Heather and Gandalf, to fly off and roll onto the gravel. The remaining dwarves became lodged in between large planks of wood on top of each other. Luck, somehow, was with them, as the goblins were pretty scattered and disorganized from the assassination of their king.

The company collectively groaned and moaned in pain as they all tried to stand up. Heather felt her shoulder was covered in blood, her arrow wound had reopened upon her body flying off her the bridge. Her leg was throbbing, but wasn't bleeding. She glanced around and saw the dwarves stuck within the debris of the wood. Gandalf, Thorin, Dori, and Nori were already pulling out their comrades. Balin and Oin were the other two that were propelled off of the wood and were laying on the ground. Heather helped them up quickly as the goblins atop of the slope were grabbing torches and weapons. A few stray arrows landed near them, but offered no threat to them. The entire company was now free and showed little injuries from their ride.

"This way! Quickly!" Heather shouted to the men. She ran up the passageway and led the dwarves up to the hole where she prayed Sieyara had escaped through. The dwarves were following her, eager to just be out of The Misty Mountains; which were currently being occupied by the goblins.

What seemed like an eternity, all thirteen dwarves, one wizard, and one female emerged from the dark tunnels of the goblins and into the dawn sun. Although the dwarves and Gandalf knew that goblins despised sunlight, they kept running. They didn't stop until they were well down the other end of The Misty Mountains. Heather, however, had another motive from continuing to run; Sieyara. They motives were different, but they all ceased their running in a small opening from the trees. All of the dwarves were hunched over, heaving hard, attempting to catch their breath. Gandalf leaned against a tree, while Fili, Kili, Bombur, and Ori fell to the ground, under the influence that sitting was going to aid them in getting their breath. Heather felt dizzy every time she attempted to stand still, so she kept walking around slowly. She kept an eye out for Sieyara.

"Balin," Thorin said quickly in between deep intakes of air, "Keep watch," he gestured in a general direction for him to stand. Balin nodded and slowly walked to where Thorin had pointed.

Heather just so happened to look at Gandalf, who was giving her a confused look. He seemed to have control of his breath long enough to say, "I thought you were at Elrond's palace?"

She was surprised that he didn't ask about her missing her shirt, but was thankful he hadn't; she didn't want to explain Sieyara just yet. "I felt I was needed here."

Gandalf gave her a weak smile; he seemed to know why she really had come along.

She sighed and leaned back to a tree, trying to forget about her reopened wound. Thorin turned to her, along with the rest of the dwarves. 'Why are you missing your shirt?" He asked, with a hint of disgust in his tone.

Before she answered, she held up her index finger, silently asking for another moment to simply breath. "What had happen was-"

"Intruder!" Balin called from his post.

Everyone turned to where Balin was pointing. Dwalin and Thorin, apparently the only ones ready to fight off any enemies, readied their weapons and dashed to the intruder. Heather jumped off the tree and followed the dwarves gaze. To her amazement, the supposed "intruder" was Sieyara.

Heather ran faster than she ever thought possible for her legs to carry her. She ran after Dwalin because he was slightly quicker than Thorin. Heather half jumped half tackled him to the ground. Thorin stopped and glared at Heather, who rolled off of Dwalin and yanked out her sword; for the first time since she received it from Gandalf, it wasn't glowing blue. As the protector older sister, Heather stood in between Thorin and Sieyara.

"What are you doing?!" Dwalin shouted, while picking himself up.

"These are your friends?!" Sieyara asked Heather, clearly terrified. "Jesus, they're going to kill me!"

"Heather," Thorin glared at her, and seemed to give her a telepathic threat. She didn't really care.

"Sieyara, they aren't going to kill you. Thorin, Dwalin, this is my sister." She stared intently at them, as if that would convince them.

The remaining dwarves watched from the clearing as Heather, Thorin, and Dwalin kept their weapons raised. Gandalf suspected a fight, as did Heather, although she didn't want to fight them; she would most definitely lose against the two best fighter dwarves of the company. Gandalf stepped in between the three and held out his hands, as if that was going to prevent them fighting.

"Lower your blades, we are not enemies here," he said, exchanging his gaze from Thorin to Dwalin to Heather. There was a moment when none of them even moved, they just froze in a fighting stance. Gandalf looked at all three of them and shouted at the top of his lungs, "LOWER THEM!"

Heather flinched and quickly put her sword back in it's sheath. Dwalin lowered his axe and looked for guidance from Thorin, who was slower in lowering his sword. This seemed to please Gandalf enough to let his arms rest by his side. He sighed loudly and finally looked at Sieyara, who was trembling in fear of a fight. He smiled as he realized why both of the girls were only half dressed. Gandalf chuckled, which grabbed everyone's attention. "So that's where your shirt went off to,"

Sieyara blushed and looked away, embarrassed about not having pants, while Heather smiled. "Yeah," Heather said, looking back at her younger sister; truly glad that she was able to prove Elrond wrong about her death being certain. "She needed it more." Sieyara glared at Heather, all red faced.

"It's not like I had a choice," Sieyara replied, still avoiding all the stares from the dwarves.

"Yes, well," Gandalf cleared his throat loudly, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "The goblins will only be delayed while the sun is up, I suggest that we move quickly as we can, before nightfall."

Everyone gathered up the weapons that had dropped from exhaustion, and prepared to leave. Heather and Sieyara hugged each other for a moment before joining back with the dwarves. Sieyara was quite surprised to see how many thirteen really was. As they were getting ready to jog through the woods, Heather led Sieyara through the mass of bearded men and named off who was who. "That's Ori, Nori, Dori. Gloin and Oin. Balin, who spotted you, his brother, Dwalin." Heather stopped next to Dwalin and said to the dwarf, "Sorry for tackling you."

"Don't worry about it," he said, strapping his new axe to his belt, "If you had a weapon raised to my brother, I would've done the same."

"Fair enough," they exchanged smiles of understanding and forgiveness before Heather continued to walk Sieyara through the names and faces. "Over there is Bofur, Bifur and Bombur; they're brothers too. And those two are Fili and Kili, and they are the nephews to Thorin-" they met right in front of their leader, who peeked up at his name, "-this guy. Oh, and don't piss him off, he's the leader of this regiment."

Thorin smirked at Heather's advice to Sieyara. She hadn't seen him smile or smirk in a while; it was nice.

"What about him?" Sieyara pointed at Gandalf, who was approaching them.

"Gandalf The Grey," he bowed slightly to Sieyara. Instead of bowing back to him, Sieyara looked at Heather, confused in this form of greeting.

"Is he Japanese?" she asked her older sister.

Heather burst out laughing and shook her head no. "God, you have a lot to learn." Heather sat down and took off her hiking boots, offering them to Sieyara. "You'll need them-"

"I'll go barefoot, thanks," Sieyara's cockiness returned. Heather simply looked up at her sister and glared at her.

"Take them," Gandalf rested a hand on Sieyara's shoulder, startling her a little.

"But she won't have shoes,"

"She's your older sister," Thorin interjected. "Let her supply you with equipment." Heather was surprised that Thorin was on her side about anything. "And hurry up, we need to leave."As the leader of the company, Sieyara listened to him and accepted her hiking boots.

Through the green forest, Thorin and his company began running at an easy pace. They wanted to put as much distance between them and the goblins. The sun was resting on Heather's exposed chest and feet. Small twigs and rocks were littered on the ground, with an occasional pine cone. Pine trees were the natural residents of this forest, stretching about 20 feet in the air. Bird nests were positioned on the higher branches next to the growing pine cones. Squirrels were hiding in a selected few trees, with a range of ages. Bugs were buzzing around their heads, annoying them as they jogged past the trees, shrubs, and thickets. Every now and again, someone would ask Heather if she wanted to change her bandages around her shoulder. The answer was always no. She didn't want to drag the company down by changing her bandages; plus, her wound felt like it closed again, so changing it might cause it to reopen. Her shoulder was stained red from the bandages, but Heather was more concerned with Sieyara and whether or not she might have to defend herself against goblins.

They ran all through the day, only stopping twice to drink from a stream. It was near nightfall when they stopped the second time. Heather was standing over Sieyara, as if she needed to stay within ten feet from her at all times. Thorin walked up to Heather and crossed his arms over his chest.

"We aren't moving until you change your wrappings," he instructed her.

"Really, they aren't that bad," Heather pitifully defended. The look Thorin was giving her made Heather regret talking back. She knew what he said goes, since everyone was following him and not her. She sighed, "Fine. But I'm going to need my sister's help." Heather really did need help with wrapping the bandages tight enough in the back; she didn't think any of the dwarves would be willing to help her anyways.

The sisters walked a little ways away from the dwarves in order to obtain some privacy; which was difficult because they were in a forest. Behind a tree, Heather unwrapped her bandages and slowly pulled the bit that was right on top of her arrow wound. Once her shoulder was completely exposed, Sieyara gasped at the sight of her wound. Of course, this was the first time Heather saw it too, in bright enough light.

"Oh my God! What the hell happened to you?" Sieyara knelt down, but kept a little bit of distance from Heather.

"I got shoot with an arrow-"

"From the dwarves!?" Sieyara exclaimed, looking back at Kili, the only dwarf with a bow and arrow. "It was that one, wasn't it?"

"Kili? God no." Heather answered, while opening the first aid kit she had brought with her from their world. "He wouldn't ever hurt me, any of them. It was from an orc." She pulled out the small bottle of alcohol and some cotton balls. "Hopefully, you'll never see one, because they are like, ten times worse than goblins." Sieyara returned her attention back to Heather.

"You're going to put alcohol on it?!" she asked, pushing Heather's hand down away from her shoulder.

"Well, yeah. We have to clean it." Heather took a moment and decided to put the cotton balls away, but not the bottle.

"You're not even going to see anything? Just pour it straight on?"

"I don't want to waste any of our medical supplies on me as is, I don't want to use them unless it's on you."

"You don't need to protect me, like I'm a child anymore," Sieyara grumbled and crossed her arms.

Heather looked at her with the bottle of cleansing alcohol in her left hand. "Yes, I do, and no, you're not. That's why I expect you to be grateful and shut the hell up." Sieyara gave an offended look, but Heather wasn't in the mood. She was getting bossed around by Thorin about changing her bandages, she didn't need any sass from her younger sister. "Now, I'm going to pour this on my shoulder, I need you to wrap it as quickly as possible, and fairly tight." Sieyara didn't say anything or uncrossed her arms. Heather sighed a little and changed her stern eyes with those in need of help. "Please?" She asked.

Sieyara rolled her eyes and picked up the clean wrap. Heather swallowed hard before drowning her fresh flesh wound in stinging alcohol. She began biting her bottom lip as Sieyara quickly wrapped Heather's shoulder up and down and then around her chest. Although Sieyara wrapped the bandages pretty tightly, she used over half of their wrap from home. But, the sun was going down and they didn't have time to redo it. They packed up the remainder of their supplies and returned to the dwarves. Thorin and Gandalf were talking, while the remaining dwarves were resting for a moment.

As the walked up, Thorin smiled a little to see that Heather's bandages were actually white again. "Doesn't clean wraps feel better?"

Heather smiled back, actually happy that Thorin wasn't ignoring her for being shirtless anymore. "Yeah, but can we leave yet?"

As if the timing couldn't be anymore perfect, from the direction they had come from, howls and hideous cries could be heard. But, Heather knew those cries before, right before they were cornered by those rock formations in the plains. It was orcs. The howls were from the wargs that they were riding and possibly more than before. Everyone snapped their attention in the direction of the battle cries. "I thought goblins were chasing us, not orcs!" Heather looked at Thorin.

"Before you showed up, The Goblin King sent a messenger to the orcs, telling them that I was there," he said, glaring that the impending attack of goblins and orcs.

"RUN!" Gandalf demanded of everyone.

The company began to run at full speed away from the orcs, goblins, wargs, and The Misty Mountains.

**A/N (2): I'm just now noticing that the bold face text wasn't going through from my Google Docs and my Wordpad. So, I'm going to go back and fix all of the chapters, so maybe you all can understand the within the story, bold face means that Heather is thinking. XD My bad**


	10. Chapter 10

Running as fast as they could, Heather was regretting not packing an extra pair of shoes. She was grateful that Sieyara had the hiking boots otherwise she would probably needed to be carried; and that was a whole other argument that the company didn't have time for. As the sun gave the last rays of light, the howls of the wargs were getting louder and closer. Heather kept her eyes on Sieyara running alongside Gandalf, who randomly stopped and looked around. A few dwarves ran passed him while others stopped near him. The sisters stood next to each other and grabbed the other's hand; as if that was going to protect them from the imminent attack. Thorin was one of the dwarves to have ran passed the wizard. He abruptly stopped about 35 feet ahead of Gandalf and quickly backtracked to him.

"We're on a cliff," Thorin grumbled to Gandalf.

"What? Heather-" Sieyara gave her older sister a completely terrified look. Heather had no way to compensate her, only transfer the look to Thorin and Gandalf.

"That's not all," Gandalf murmured to Thorin, Heather, and Sieyara. "We're surrounded. They are closing in."

Sieyara made a shriek and hugged Heather; again, foolishly hoping that was going to save her. Heather returned a weak hug while carefully studying Thorin and Gandalf's expressions, hoping to see that they had come up with an idea. The remaining dwarves got the impression to regroup by these four and they did. Balin was watching for any sign of the patrolling wargs while the rest held their breath in order to keep silent. The sun was nearly gone by the time the company started to hear the pitter-patter of the swift wargs approaching them. Suddenly, nothing short of a miracle, Gandalf pointed at the trees and shouted, "The trees! Climb the trees!"

As fast as the company assembled, they dispersed and crowded the nearest tree. Heather immediately grabbed SIeyara and dragged her to a tree. She pushed her younger sister upward with all her might to ensure her safety. Heather quickly glanced around to find a few of the shorter dwarves unable to reach branches to climb up. She raced over and helped the last three dwarves just in time for the wargs to appear in a semicircle around the outer trees that hid the dwarves. She hid behind the trunk of the nearest tree and took a few deep breaths before jumping to grab the lowest branch.

It took her a moment to get her bearings, because of her lack of wearing shoes, it was painful for her to use her feet to horst her way onto the branch. Instead of using her feet, Kili pulled her up, just as a large warg began sniffing the base of the tree. All of the dwarves, including Heather, Sieyara, and Gandalf, held their breaths as the patrol wargs circled around the bases of the trees. Everyone watched silently as the wargs sniffed and poked around each tree, searching for the suddenly disappeared dwarves.

One of the dwarves sneezed or dropped something or just did something to get a warg's attention that was mounted by an orc. The orc looked up and saw the three dwarves in that particular tree and snarled.

"In the trees!" it howled. In a chain reaction, every warg began to claw and jump at the lowest branches of the trees. The dwarves gasped and began to climb higher. Heather followed the other's action, but couldn't help but look for her sister to make sure she was doing the same. However, the highest point at most of the trees were no match for the wargs. With each determined lounge, the wargs began to get closer to the hiding dwarves. The trees began to tilt to the ground. So, one dwarf had the amazing idea to begin hopping from tree to tree to get to the tallest tree; which so happened to be at the edge of the cliff. Heather sucked up her nagging splinters in her feet and began to jump along with the Kili and Nori. They hopped from falling tree to falling tree until they reached the huge oak tree at the edge. Heather quickly spotted her delicate younger sister near the top, just under Gandalf and Bofur. The howling from the wargs below grabbed Heather's attention again.

Behind the fallen trees, there was a distinguishable character. A horribly pale orc was riding an albino warg. Both looking terrifyingly menacing and evil, they scanned the wreckage of where the tall oak trees once stood. Their presence alone caused the patrol wargs to cease and wait for instructions. Heather watched carefully as the white orc examined the fallen trees and slowly transfixed its gaze onto the remaining tree. Its cold eyes seeming to stab Heather's confidence of fighting their way off of the cliff. Her idea was quickly thrown out of her mind as the orc released an unholy yell.

This was a signal for the wargs to begin to tear down the tree where all sixteen person in the company had resided themselves. Before she could brace herself, a small ball of fire flew overhead and landed on a patch of dry grass. The fire soon began to spread; but then more fireballs were flying to the ground. Dwarves in all positions of the tree began to feverishly throw pine cones at the oncoming wave of wargs. As the fire spread, most of the wargs became scared and ran in the opposite direction.

A few strong looking wargs managed to jump over the rapidly building fire and claw at the base of their tree. The dwarves started to focus their pine cone power on the wargs at the base while Gandalf kept throwing pine cones that were on fire. Heather helped knock the wargs away, but it wasn't good enough.

The enemy had gotten one too many good blows on the tree; everyone felt a sudden jolt as the tree lost majority of the roots that held the tree to the top of the cliff. Heather dropped her pine cones as she examined the damaged at the base. Multiple scratch marks indicated that the wargs were successful at breaking the support of the tree. Heather grabbed onto a thick branch and braced herself for a hell of a fall. The dwarves did the same by grabbing onto the nearest branch, regardless of it's thickness and steadiness.

Gravity quickly kicked in as the tree started to tilt over the cliff. All of the dwarves screamed as the tree slammed to a stop. Thankfully, the remaining roots of the tree kept it from falling completely off. The impact caused the dwarves to jerk downwards and hang on to the tree for life. However stupid it was, Heather couldn't help herself but look down and assess how far of a drop it was and try to convince herself that maybe falling wouldn't kill them. Heather glanced down and came to the conclusion that they were certainly going to die. She shut her eyes and muttered a prayer that if anyone would survive such a drop that it would be Thorin. No, her sister. What? She shook her head and looked on the tree to find her sister; feeling very guilty that she thought of him before her own sister.

On the trunk of the now horizontal tree, Heather found Thorin glaring at the white orc. There was a silent moment before she realized that he was helping himself up. "Thorin!" she called, but he didn't hear her. Instead of yelling for him again, she followed his glare to the white orc, who had only one arm. It's left arm was replaced with an awkward hook-thing. This sight scared her even more than before. Heather looked back at Thorin; he had completely regained his balance and had drawn his sword. She wasn't a fortune-teller, or psychic, but she could clearly see what Thorin was planning; she was just hoping he would see her dangling from a branch right next to him instead of charging into the burning forest and attack that orc.

As her luck was just about up, that didn't happen. After carefully stepping off of the laying tree, Thorin charged into the inferno with his sword raised. He disappeared behind the small wall of fire and ash. She heard him yell a battle cry and then loud thuds. There wasn't clangs of metal connecting, so no swordplay. But who was winning? Heather couldn't tell just by the sounds apart from wood crackling but couldn't help and gaze over the fire in hopes of seeing Thorin fight. Every lag of fire or bare spot Heather looked through she couldn't see him. The dwarves on the tree were helping themselves, unknown to them that their leader has just charged into the fire in hopes for a battle against an army.

For some reason, Heather had entirely forgotten about everyone, including her sister, and forced herself up to get a better view of Thorin fighting. She had remembered how he fought out the goblin caves, and it was incredible. Instead of seeing him dodging multiple swords and axes, Heather finally caught a glimpse of him; within the teeth of a warg. Her heart dropped when the warg used all of his might and threw him like a ragdoll. How could this be? He was always the tough guy, the badass. Was he over powered? Something strange began building inside of Heather, it was the same feeling she got when she heard of her sister's condition; she absolutely had to help him.

With a mystery force, Heather pulled herself up and jumped on the dirt. She rolled, drew her elvish blade, and ran straight to the fire that stood in between her and Thorin. A lurking shadow, that could only be an orc, was quickly approaching Thorin. She readied her sword and, while ignoring her sore feet and bleeding shoulder, jumped through the fire. Heather landed on a rock and immediately lunged forward. The orc was about to bring his club right on Thorin's dizzied head. But, Heather was able to stagger him just enough to mess up his arm and drop the club. She didn't know where she was positioned on the orc, only to stab it. Heather used her right arm to shove her sword into the orc. It stumbled and fell over with pain, but Heather didn't allow it to recover; she pulled out her sword and raised it over her head with both hands. With one another mighty stab, Heather ended the orc's life.

Heaving greatly, she had withdrawn her glowing blade and clambered her way to Thorin. There was a small gash on his head and teeth marks on his arms. From the distance, she couldn't tell if he was breathing, and she never got the chance.

Large talons ripped her upwards and away from the fire. She fought against them at first, but soon realized that the remainder of the company was whisked away by other giant eagles. Heather took a deep breath and relaxed slightly. She looked around and saw eagles taking dwarves up from the tree and catching the few who had fallen; including Gandalf who had willingly jumped off. Back at the woods, Heather heard anger howl and growls from both the wargs and orcs. She glanced back just in time to see a brown and white eagle pick up Thorin's body. She sighed out of relief that they didn't think he was dead and that they should have left him to burn.

"HEATHER!" she heard Sieyara call for her. Heather looked up and vaguely saw her younger sister on top of the eagle that was carrying her. "Are you crazy?!"

"Just a little," she admitted, unsure of what Sieyara was referring to.

"What would've Dad said if he saw you jumping through fire, for a boy?" she teased.

Heather took a moment and realized how absolutely reckless she was. But the thought of her dead father made her realize her feelings for their company leader. "He would've asked me if he was worth it." she muttered, just barely loud enough for Sieyara to hear. The outspoken question was more for Heather's mind than Sieyara's teasing pleasure.

"Well, is he?"

She looked back at her sister and gave a "you-know-the-answer" look. Sieyara replied with a smile and looked down the eagle's beak, to try to figure out where they were going. Heather looked around the surrounding eagles, searching for the one that had grabbed Thorin. Instead of finding him, she came face-to-face with Gandalf. Her face began pink with embarrassment while he just gave her a warm smile.

"What?" she asked, hoping he didn't hear any of her conversation with her sister.

Gandalf gave her the same look that she had given her sister.

**WOOT. Finally got to finishing this chapter. I am extremely sorry it took so long (you wouldn't believe what one person has to do to get prepared for Basic Training!) It's shorter, sorry. But, I have a request of you amazing followers: actually, a question. Should Thorin and Heather kiss next chapter? I'm at a bit of a blank, so post your thoughts and feelings as reviews and I'll make it happen ;)**

**Thanks for being even so paitent!**


	11. Chapter 11

The eagles continued to flap their giant wings away from the burning forest under the Misty Mountains. Heather was able to relax a little while in the talons of the eagle that was carrying her and Sieyara. But she found herself still picturing Thorin laying on the ground, bleeding out. She couldn't fully feel comfortable (mostly because she had a suspicion that the eagle was going to eat her) because she was worrying about him; which was strange, since he gave off the impression that he wasn't exactly fond of her. In fact, she remembered back about a week, where she and Thorin had a fight about what he was hiding from her and how after, he hadn't really looked at her in the eye. And when he did, his eyes were usually of slight disgust. This bothered Heather, considering she hadn't really done anything to upset him; besides stealing that key around his neck when they first met. Maybe he didn't trust her? But, she just saved his life, would he trust her then? Or, act like she was the one to rush into battle and he saved her? Is Thorin the type of person to actually do that? She really hoped not.

As the sun began to color the sky a light pink near the horizon, the eagles carefully dropped all of the dwarves on top of a peak. One by one, Gandalf began counting for all thirteen dwarves; not bothering to name them off, instead just simply counting aloud. Heather was gently placed on the peak and Sieyara was helped down the back of the eagle by Dwalin. Heather crawled out from under the sharp talons and eased herself up, careful not to irritate her shoulder anymore. The elven medicine was suppose to completely heal her wound, but with all of the running from goblins and orcs, and climbing up and jumping tree to tree and finally getting whisked away by giant eagles, it was a surprise that her arrow wound wasn't worse. As soon as Heather found a way to stand without causing her too much pain from her bruised and blistered feet, she leaned and gave her younger sister a hug. Heather was so relieved that her sister was alive, but still wished that she had a pair of jeans to wear.

"Jesus," Sieyara sighed, "That was absolutely insane! I-I can't believe we're alive."

"Better get used to it, young lady," Balin walked over to them. The girls released each other and looked at the dwarf with a long white beard. "More challenges lay between us and Erebor."

Before Sieyara could say anything, the three of them were pushed aside by Gandalf. "Move along! Make room for him!"

One last eagle carefully landed and gingerly placed the body of Thorin. The girls' smiling faces were inflicted with those of grave concern. Heather began biting her tongue, for fear of something terrible had happened before she ran into that orc to protect him. Also, she felt her eyes tear up at the sight of his bruised, torn, and possibly broken body. Once the eagle dropped him on the peak and flew away, Gandalf kneel by Thorin's side and began whispering to himself. Again, Heather stabbed her tongue with her teeth to hold back tears. Why was she feeling like this? He had been an ass to her and treated like she didn't exist; why did she want to cry at the sight of his horrible injuries? Her sister saw her nervousness and gave her a small side hug to comfort her.

While everyone's attention our their injured king, Balin's keen eyes fell elsewhere. He was carefully studying the two girls next to him. He found many difference between the two. For instance, Heather wasn't actually tall, but Sieyara was shorter, which could be expected in siblings. However, their hair color were strangely opposites, Heather's a dark brown and Sieyara a blonde. Again, Kili and Fili had different hair colors and they were brothers. But, he found that their eyes were different as well; Heather's light green and Sieyara's dark brown. If their physical appearances didn't reveal their differences well enough, their natural stances weren't similar to one another. The girls' hands weren't close to the same size, their feet of different proportions, one had broad shoulders while the other was slender, Heather had much longer legs than her sister and Sieyara had a more round face than her sister. His assumptions were inconclusive, but this was the start of Balin prying Sieyara's secret origins from Heather.

A few moments passed before Gandalf stood up. Heather held her breath when she didn't see Thorin rise with the old wizard. Everyone froze in fear and braced themselves for the worse.

"He will be fine," Gandalf announced to the company, who in response did a collective sigh of relief. "He needs lots of rest, and wraps." He turned his head to the many of dwarves to his left and began picking them out for various tasks. As he pointed them out, the corresponding dwarf jumped up and readied themselves to a heavy burden. Parties of the dwarves began climbing down the peak in search of food and a certain herb that could be used to ease pain. Balin was given the task to keep watch, which wasn't new, at the peak. Finally, Gandalf's eyes landed on Heather and Sieyara. He gave them a warm smile. "Not so bad, hm?"

"Speak for yourself," Sieyara nodded at Thorin, still unconscious.

"He's a warrior at heart, loves fighting and conquering, my dear. He is bound to get thrashed around every now and again." He changed glances to Heather to address her. "May I speak with you privately?"

Before she could answer, Gandalf turned around and stepped around Thorin. Heather quickly looked at her sister and shrugged her shoulders, even though her right one still ached. Sieyara nodded slightly and began to busy herself with looking around the peak horizon. Heather carefully stepped over Thorin, praying he would wake up sooner than later. At the other edge of the peak, Gandalf stood and watched as the now far away cliff burned in the morning sun.

"He will be alright," he started.

"I know, but, I worry, ya'know?"

A small chuckle came from Gandalf. He took a minute to carefully find the words he wanted to use. "The dwarves have known that I wasn't to stay on the journey for the entire time."

"So, you're leaving?"

"Yes, I have business elsewhere. However, I feel that the will be in more capable hands."

"Who? Thorin?" Heather exchanged a look with Gandalf; he gave her a smirk and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Wait, what? Me?!" her voice was hushed, as if this was a secret. "My hands are capable?"

"Why, of course they are, my dear. Did you not save your only sister from a mountain full of goblins? And thirteen hopeless dwarves from certain doom?"

"Well, technically, no. They chased us down the slope of the mountain and into the trees. Those eagles grabbed us just in time-"

"Lady Heather," he said more seriously, just like her father's tone whenever he got impatient with her. "Do not discredit yourself."

"I'm just stating the obvious,"

He gave her a more serious look, signaling that he was getting irritated by her. "You view your courageous actions as whatever you wish; but it still stands that I am leaving. Not now, but soon." He took a breath and relaxed a little before he continued. "Regardless of how you feel towards your previous actions, I must ask you to be the one to save these dwarves from whatever trouble they are bound to get stuck in. What I said back at Bag End has not changed, you are clever and can quickly think on your feet. And very good at stealing."

They both chuckled and eased their serious moment into a comfortable one. Heather thought back to Mr. Baggins' cosy little hobbit hole. She wondered what he was doing right now, probably still sleeping. Then, she remembered that before her little hunt for Thorin's pipe began, he had whispered something about the end of the journey.

"Gandalf, what's at the end? Why wouldn't Thorin say anything back at Mr. Baggin's home?"

The old wizard looked around, to make sure no one would over hear, or that Sieyara wouldn't hear. "At the end, at The Lonely Mountain, resides a beast. A terrible, greedy creature that guards over Thror's, Thorin's grandfather's, legendary horde of gold. Treasures beyond value, such as the Arkenstone; Thror's most prized-possession. Thorin wishes to defeat this beast in order to reclaim his grandfather's treasure and to reign over the rich city of Erebor. Thorin is a dwarf prince."

"An actual prince?"

"Yes, until he conquers the beast that resides at The Lonely Mountain; then he will become King Under the Mountain."

"Oh damn," she glanced back at Thorin, still unconscious, "He's going to become a king? I nearly slapped him back at the forest with those trolls!"

Another chuckle from Gandalf made Heather feel worse about everything bad she had ever thought of Thorin. Even if he doesn't become king, he's considered a prince. And pissing off a prince is something Heather thought she would have done.

"Lady Heather, remember what we discussed after you awoke from falling from the troll's hand? Before I gave you that sword?" he motioned to the blade that was messily at her side, being barely hung up by her jean loop.

"Vaguely," she admitted. "You had mentioned about Thorin's greed and your-" she glanced again at the unconscious dwarf, then back at Gandalf and lowered her voice, "-plan to save him from himself. And something about Sieyara."

"What?" her younger sister called from the rock, looking hopeful to not be excluded from everyone.

"Yes," Gandalf hissed in her ear, trying to stay quiet. "We need to further discuss it, but not here." He left turned but to the younger girl and continued to speak as though they weren't talking about her. "Would you be so kind to accompany your sister to find some water? I'm terribly parched."

"Yeah, as long as she can climb down without shoes,"

"I'll be fine," Heather muttered, a little irritated at Gandalf was successful in changing the subject.

The girls began their descent into the plain area below. Heather took her time climbing down the ledges and rocks while Sieyara particularly jumped from landing to landing with her sister's boots. Once they both were on solid ground, which was a little rough with loose gravel, they were off looking for a river or stream for Gandalf (Sieyara wasn't paying attention to when the old wizard was giving orders to the dwarves, but Heather knew that Nori, Dori, Ori and Oin were already sent for water). They began walking around in random directions as though they had no purpose; which was the most accurate reason for why Gandalf wanted them to leave. Heather's feet were aching already from the climb down, she doubted how she would get back up or even continue the journey,

"How do hobbits walk around everywhere without shoes?" she wondered out loud.

"What's a hobbit?" Sieyara asked, hoping to continue to break the silence.

"They are like dwarves, only shorter, with less hair and beards, and have these big feet. They walk without shoes and socks, and I'm wondering how they can deal with sharp rocks and dead grass."

Sieyara nodded and thought for a moment before she replied. "How do you know so much about this place? And everything that lives in it?"

Heather began to feel guilty for the way things turned out; she didn't want to tell her sister that while she was been tortured by goblins in The Misty Mountains, that she was living comfortably with a nice hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. She didn't want to tell her that she even got a job working on a farm and on weekends was at the pub for work. If Heather knew her sister was taken hostage by the goblins, she would have ran out of that hole in the ground and rescue her sooner. But, her luck might be great, but Sieyara's luck was pretty bad, considering all that happened so far.

Regardless of her guilt, she felt compelled to explain her short life previous to meeting the dwarves.

"Well, when we first came to this world, I was alone at a hillside. I wandered into a small village, The Shire, and meet a hobbit, Mr. Baggins. I told him I didn't remember anything and he was more than happy, eager, actually, to take me in and help me out." Heather took a minute to read her sister's facial expressions. She didn't want to continue if Sieyara was upset. Which she was allowed to be, except that she usually storms away like a child when angry enough.

"So," Sieyara stopped walking and stared at Heather, "Instead of looking for me or Dad-"

"No, Sieyara, I looked for-"

"-you jumped right into nearest town and completely forgot about us. Left us for dead in that damn cave."

"I did not! I didn't even know you were there."

"Then how did you know to look for me there, huh? How did you know I was there?"

"I was told by an elf," Heather knew that wasn't much of an argument, but it was the truth.

"An elf?! You really expect me to believe that a magical elf told you where I was?"

"Yes, actually. Because that's what happened!"

Sieyara glared at Heather as though Heather was the scum of the Earth; of Middle-Earth.

Heather sighed out of frustration and continued, hoping to tell her the rest before she ran off. "Please, let me finish."

"No! Absolutely not! You've said one thing and it was the worse possible thing you could ever say; that instead of looking for your family, who was taken prisoner by terrible goblins, you became a regular at some hobbit town! And that instead of placing the family first, as you said you've always done, you thought only of yourself. I never stopped thinking of you, or Dad, even after they killed him. I always kept my mind on you, and apparently you didn't."

Sieyara turned and began to walk onto a large rock bed. Heather reached for her angry sister, but Sieyara just ripped her arm from her reach and ran off.

"Sieyara!" Heather called after her at the edge of the rock bed, but it was pointless. She started running in a hot rage further away from her. Heather sighed as she was forced to watch the last of her family run away from her. She knew that she had to come back eventually, but it was still frustrating that she would still act like a spoiled brat. Left with no choice, Heather sat on a small patch of grass and leaned against a rock, and began waiting for Sieyara to cool off and come back. It was always a mystery what kind of mood she'd be in after running off to her room. Sieyara would either get over the fight instantly, and return, or she would decide to ignore whoever she was mad at for a week. And Heather really didn't want to deal with her ignoring her for a week while on this journey. To pass the time, she examined her sore feet. Nothing was bleeding, which was a good sign, but blisters were definitely forming under her toes.

Heather wasn't about to admit defeat to her brat of a sister, so after carefully memorizing the positions of blisters, she began to busy herself with the sword Gandalf had given her. She studied it, practiced swinging it and stabbing with it, and cleaned it the best she could with the grass to get the orc blood off of it. Again, that didn't take much time. So all that was left to do was think but she didn't know what to think about. Heather began with how she could have better started their conversation to avoid this ridiculous argument, but that wasn't making her feel any better. She replayed all of the events that had happen up to that moment when she stormed onto the rocks. Heather contemplated whether or not she did all she could have done at the beginning; was staying at Mr. Baggins' the best thing she could have done? Could she have saved her father and sister from goblins if she just looked harder? What would have happen if she never met Mr. Baggins' and Gandalf and all those magnificent dwarves?

Her mind was swimming with all of those possibilities, and it wasn't helping her feel any less guilty. She wished for anything to get her mind off of her guilt. As if by que, she heard some footsteps behind her; they weren't running or heavy, almost as if someone was trying to sneak up on her. She focused on the steps and guessed approximately where the person was behind her. After the most recent step, she jumped up, pulled out her sword and pointed it at whoever was attempting to sneak up on her. To her surprise, it was Thorin. He was using nearby rocks and trees as balance to walk.

'What the hell are you doing?" Heather dropped her blade to help him sit down. "How did you get down from the peak, and why?" she was upset with his stupidity; arrogant or not, you don't push yourself to walk, or climb down a peak, right after becoming a warg chew toy. 'What were you thinking? You need rest."

"I need to speak with you," he said in between puffs of breath. He took a moment to catch his breath while Heather quickly grabbed her sword. She glanced out over the rockbed, trying to see her annoying sister; she was nowhere in sight, so Heather knelt down next to Thorin, just afraid that at any moment he would fall back into unconsciousness.

He looked at her with an unknown expression painted on his face, but, instead of being understanding, like she usually is, she unknowingly vented some of her anger from Sieyara at Thorin. "Whatever you need to talk to me about, it could have waited til we got back." she hissed.

"No, it couldn't have. Not with my kin watching," he muttered to her.

"What does that mean?" Heather said, more rude than she meant. Thorin looked at her with a quizzical look; she could feel her face flare with embarrassment for snapping at him.

"Why such hostility?" Thorin asked her, almost as if her unnatural aggressive behavior hurt him.

She studied him for a moment and determined that he was genuinely curious about her life; which was unlike Thorin, for the longest time he drove her crazy with pretending that she didn't exist, now he was curious about her? Something was wrong, maybe he's suffering from a concussion. Heather wasn't exactly herself either, so she decided to tell him.

"Sieyara is under the impression that I didn't look for her. And that I forgot about her entirely."

"Did you not save her life back in the mountains?"

"Yes!" Heather stood up and flung her arms in the air, over exaggerating giving up on her sister. "She doesn't think that was good enough. Ungrateful little bitch," she muttered the last part, but she meant it. Heather took a deep breath to calm herself and ran her hand through her hair, still angry with her overly childish sister.

Thorin watched as Heather cracked her knuckles and popped her neck, as though she was ready to fight a bear. Once she finished pacing for a moment, she sighed and sat next to Thorin. "Sorry," she said while slugging into the rock, "she just gets on my nerves sometimes."

"I can tell," Thorin gave her a warm smile, that her anger made her over look as she stared at the ground instead of him. "I'm not," he said to her, becoming serious again.

Heather looked at him with a questionable look. "You're not, what?"

"Ungrateful," he simply said, as though it was obvious.

Before she could ask further, one of his large hands cupped the side of her face and reached the back of her neck. He pulled her close to him; under different circumstances, she would have figured out instantly what he was planning, but since she was so frustrated with Sieyara she didn't realize what was happening. Thorin reeled her head towards his and pressed his lips against her's. His eyes were shut but Heather's were wide open in surprise. His beard lightly scratched her chin and she felt his hand on her neck relax while their lips were together. They were so close, Heather felt his heart beating faster which caused her own heart to try to find a rhythm with his. Her mind, like her body, fell apart; heather had no idea what possibly possessed him to do this, but he did.

Heather didn't know how long he held her there, but he finally allowed her to retract. She was confused, to say the least. Their eyes met, and he seems extremely happy while Heather was baffled. Thorin gave a smile and whispered into her ear.

"You saved my life, thank you."

Thorin lowered his enormous hand from her neck and gripped her petite hand, stroking it gently with his thumb. He reclined and relaxed back on the rock, while Heather sat next to him, speechless. When she didn't speak for a moment, he looked at her with concern. "Have I over stepped my boundary?"

"No, no no," she muttered, shaking her head lightly, to bring her back into reality; well, this reality. "I-I just wasn't expecting that. At all," For some reason, Heather's face turned bright red, so she avoided looking at him. "I mean, that completely changed my mood."

Thorin laughed ever so slightly, which forced Heather to look at him. "I am thrilled; I don't think the most fierce dragon would want to face you with a sword when you were as upset as you were."

"You saw me?! Wow, that's embarrassing," she muttered, hiding her face from Thorin again. Then, something clicked in her mind, and she became like herself immediately. "Wait, there are dragons?"

* * *

WOAH, I bet a few of you all were freaking out that I wasn't going to be able to finish it before I left, huh? Well, I did, and I hope you all will enjoy this as much as I made trouble getting it finished.

I will be back sometime in January from my Basic Training (I'm leaving Monday :DDD) and after I watch the second movie, I'll definitely get going on part two.

Thanks for all of the amazing support and understanding. And next time you see me, I'll be an official solider ;)


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